Marcus Jansen

Life and History

Marcus Jansen is considered a pioneer in a new form of modern expressionism stated Art Historian Jerome A.Donson. Jansen took part in his first art exhibition at the Lever House in Manhattan at age six after his painting of lion was selected by a local students school competition while living in Laurelton, Queens, NY. He started doing art in the early 1980s in Germany during an ongoing graffiti art movement from New York City after being introduced to graffiti artist WEST ONE. Jansen was raised bilingual by a father from Germany and Mother from the West Indies and was educated in Germany. In the late 1990's he managed to merge his own history, political/social commentary and background from the worlds he grew up in and from what was called "graffiti" to crossover of contemporary expressionism or neo-expressionism in painting with roots in movements of various European and American expressive art styles.

He returned to painting after his Gulf War Service in 1990 - 1991 where he deployed with the Airborne Units at Fort Bragg NC. Jansen's first book, "Modern Urban-Expressionism", was published in 2006 by his then French dealer Jean-Marc Alphan in Paris France where he was introduced to Art Auctioneer Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr The foreword in the book refers to Jansen as the "innovator of "Modern-Expressionism", was written by the former Museum director of traveling exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York and the American Vanguard Exhibitions in Europe 1961 Jerome A. Donson who discovered Jansen in 2004.

Donson arranged international traveling exhibitions with action painters like, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. Jansen's first US showcase was at Madison Square Gardens Film & Art Festival in 1999. He has shown in important exhibitions and Biennials in Russia, South Africa, Europe, South America and Asia. In 2008, Jansen was commissioned by Warner Brothers Hollywood for an interpretation of the 1939 story The Wizard of Oz honoring the companies 80th Anniversary and later was noted in Who's Who in American Art and became more widely known for his "Absolut Blank" bottle for "Absolut Vodka", as part of the next Generation of Absolut artist's as he joined the names like Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Damien Hirst. In 2012, Jansen's work "Creeping Obstacles in Kansas", appeared on the cover of No. 94 of the New American Paintings alumni selection by juror Dan Cameron, founder of the Prospect New Orleans Biennial inc., which made Jansen the first Florida based artist to ever do so.

Art

In 2014 Dr. Alan Theisen a music composer broke grounds after being commissioned by FSU College of Music and wrote Gallery, a large-scale woodwind composition that was performed by Force Majeure Quintet at Florida State University making Marcus Jansen the first living contemporary painter known to have a classical movement specifically composed for his art. In this case, his dystopian urban landscape, Creeping Obstacles in Kansas alongside movements composed for already deceased artists like Kustav Klimt, Roy Lichtenstein, Piet Mondrian and Calude Monet. The same year, Naples Noteworthy Magazine in Naples Florida names Jansen, "One of the most Important American Painters of our Times."

Jansen's solo shows include exhibitions at the La Triennale di Milano Museum, and group shows at the Moscow Museum of Art, Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Kallmann-Museum, the Housatonic Museum of Art. the Naples Museum of Art, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts and the Cityleaks Urban Art Biennale, Cologne, Germany, 2015."

Film

Marcus Jansen is featured in a first documentary film by Emmy Award Winning Filmmaker John Scoular titled "Marcus Jansen Examine and Report" and had its World Premiere at the Fort Myers Film Festival awarded "Best Local Film in 2016. The film features art personalities Urban art dealer Steve Lazarides, Lawrence Voytek, Noah Becker, Dieter Rampl, Brooke Lynn Mcgowan, WEST Rubinstein, Richard Beavers, Hans G. Jansen, Liane Niedheidt, John Loscuito and Prof. Dr. Manfred Schneckenburger

Books

Art Book Publishers Skira Editore in Milan published a first major Monograph titled Marcus Jansen "DECADE" in 2015. The book has a foreword by London Art Dealer also known as Banksy first agent Steve Lazarides and text by Paolo Manazza , Noah Becker , Brooke Lynn Mcgowan and Lawrence Voytek .

Art Book Publishers Hirmer Verlag GMBH in Munich published a first major Monograph titled Marcus Jansen "AFTERMATH" in 2017. The book has a foreword by Prof. Dr. Dieter Ronte,former Museum Director at the Kunst Museum Bonn and text by Art Historian and Art Critic Prof. Dr. Manfred Schneckenburger , Dr. Gottfried Knapp Art Critic for the Suddeutsche Zeitung and Dr. Elmar Zorn.

Collections

Collections of art that own examples of Jansen's work include: New Britain Museum of American Art, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art the Housatonic Museum of Art the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Ulyanovsk Museum Fine Arts, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts the, PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Russia, Smithsonian InstitutionU.S. Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, UNESCO in Paris France.

Jansen is represented by Weinstein Gallery San Francisco, Lazarides, London, Joerg Heitsch Galerie, Munich and Galerie Kellermann,Dusseldorf.

Awards