About the artist
Masaaki Tanaka is a contemporary printmaker. Born in Tokyo, he graduated from Musashino Art University with a major in Oil Painting in 1971. Following graduation, he stayed with the university as an assistant instructor in Print Research for two years. During this time, he studied woodblock printmaking with Sho Kidokoro, stone printing with Shohachi Shimizu and taught himself silkscreen, all the while traveling to the United States and Europe. For 10 years one of his silkscreen prints appeared on the cover page of the weekly magazine The Shukan Shincho. The Japanese government presented one of Tanaka’s prints to President Ronald Reagan during a visit to Japan. Tanaka has actively exhibited worldwide throughout his career. His prints can be found in collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago, Portland Art Museum, and Honolulu Museum of Art.