About the artist
Chris Van Otterloo is a contemporary printmaker and nihonga painter. Best known for his landscape and architectural etchings, he was the sole pupil of the Japanese etching master Ryohei Tanaka (1933-2019). Born in the Netherlands, Van Otterloo studied Fine Arts at Leiden National University. Following graduation, he spent a year studying Japanese literature at Kyoto University before beginning his two-year study of etching under Ryohei Tanaka. In 1977, Van Otterloo pivoted to the study of nihonga, or “Japanese-style painting” at the Kyoto Municipal Art Academy. From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, he exhibited both his etchings and nihonga paintings internationally, from Australia to Japan. Today, he works as an artist, lecturer, art consultant, and art historian.