Sanae Kobayashi's prints exist at the intersection of two artistic traditions — the precise, meditative craft of Japanese mokuhanga and the expansive, atmospheric landscapes of the Upper Midwest. Each piece begins with months of observation, sketching the same scene across seasons before committing to the carved block.
Kobayashi was born in Kyoto and moved to Wisconsin in 2012 to study at UW-Madison's art department. She never left. "There's something about the light here," she says. "It has the same quiet intensity as the light in the mountains around Kyoto. I recognized it immediately."
Her series Four Seasons on the Isthmus — depicting Madison's landscape from the same vantage point across spring, summer, autumn, and winter — won the 2025 Midwest Printmakers Prize. Her work is held in the collections of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art and the Chazen Museum.