Jeannie Kenmotsu, Ph.D.

At the Museum, Dr. Kenmotsu has organized the exhibitions Joryū Hanga Kyōkai, 1956–1965: Japan’s Women Printmakers and Objects of Contact: Encounters between Japan and the West (both 2020-21), Dramatic Impressions: Japanese Actor Prints (2019), Suzuki Harunobu and the Culture of Color (2018), and Craftsmanship and Wit (2017). She was also closely involved in all curatorial aspects of the special exhibition Poetic Imagination in Japanese Art: Selections from the Collection of Mary and Cheney Cowles (2018), serving as co-editor of the accompanying catalogue.

A specialist in Japanese art of the Edo period (1615–1868), Dr. Kenmotsu has written on color printing and illustrated books in the eighteenth century, including entries for the Gerhard Pulverer Collection at the Freer|Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution. Prior to joining the Portland Art Museum, Kenmotsu assisted with the major international loan exhibition of Japanese painting, Ink and Gold: Art of the Kano (2015) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. She also worked closely with the print collections at Philadelphia, and co-curated the loan exhibition A Sense of Place: Modern Japanese Prints (2015). She has also been a visiting assistant professor of Asian art history at Scripps College.

Dr. Kenmotsu is a graduate of Pomona College and earned her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research has been supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Japan Foundation, and Blakemore Foundation, among others. She is a Senior Fellow of the Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography (Rare Book School, University of Virginia).