What Is a Monotype? Hiroyuki Suzuki and the Art of Contact

A monotype is a unique print. Unlike etching, lithography, or woodcut, it is not made as an edition of identical impressions. The artist applies ink or paint to a smooth surface, such as a metal plate, glass, or acrylic sheet, and then transfers the image onto paper through pressure. A second impression may sometimes be possible, but it will be lighter and different. This is why a monotype is a one-of-a-kind work on paper.

Works on paper by Hiroyuki Suzuki, seen in the studio. His monotypes explore ink, pressure, contact, and transfer.

Monotype occupies a special place in printmaking. It uses the tools and pressure of printing, but it has the uniqueness and immediacy of drawing or painting. Each work depends on a particular moment of transfer, where material, pressure, and gesture meet.

For Hiroyuki Suzuki, this process is central to the work. After studying printmaking at S. W. Hayter’s Atelier 17 in Paris, he developed a practice in which printmaking is treated as a direct physical encounter between ink, paper, pressure, gesture, and form.

Hiroyuki Suzuki works with Charbonnel oil-based printmaking inks on Arches paper. His process involves both addition and removal. Ink is applied to the surface, then partly taken away, opened, or thinned before being transferred to the paper. This act of removal gives the works their particular tension. Areas of density meet areas of absence. Forms seem to emerge from the surface rather than being simply drawn onto it.

The title being shaped suggests something in formation. In Suzuki’s monotypes, the image appears through material decisions: what is added, what is removed, and what remains after transfer.

Each monotype is therefore a unique work on paper. Through ink applied and removed, pressed and transferred, Hiroyuki Suzuki creates works where form is not only represented. It is being shaped.

Upcoming Exhibition at Art San Gallery

The Work of Printmaker Hiroyuki Suzuki

October 3 – November 29, 2026

Art San Gallery will present an exhibition dedicated to Hiroyuki Suzuki, whose practice extends printmaking into a physical exploration of ink, paper, pressure, contact, and form.