Marcus Jansen tagging on the floor with Maastricht Graff writer TRAZONE in Amsterdam in front of large SHOE piece, Amsterdam, 1987
Marcus Antonius Jansen, (b. 1968, New York City), is a painter best known for his defaced “Faceless” portraits and gestural provoking landscapes with studios based in Bronx, New York, and Fort Myers, Florida.
“Avant-garde” has long described creatives who break aesthetic conventions. Yet its true origins lie in the battlefield. A French term meaning “the advanced guard,” these are the souls who brave the front lines, becoming firsthand witnesses to human devastation. In his life and work, artist Marcus Jansen occupies both senses of the phrase. An Army veteran who served in the Gulf War, he paints surreal landscapes and portraits that excavate conflict and conquest, as well as their casualties and underlying power structures.
Jansen presents his audience with a complete reexamination of our visual history for a new 21st century, and although his works seem especially timely now, it’s the last 25 years that Jansen has been noted as a pioneer with critics and historians alike. Emerging with socio-politically charged works at the very early part of a new economically challenged globalized era, Jansen disrupts both historically and painterly.
Former two-time curator of the Documenta Kassel 6 in 1977 and Documenta 8 in 1987 and German art critic, Professor Dr.Manfred Schneckenburger called Jansen’s work, “one of the most important American painters of his generation." The New York Times called his work a “magisterial presentation.”
Art historian John Seed published a recent book, Disruptive Realism, in which Jansen is highlighted on the back cover alongside 43 artists, while taking an in-depth look at the works of contemporary painters who are challenging and reshaping the tradition of Realism. Jansen's unique oeuvre serves as an emotive and refreshingly insightful critique of the contemporary American and global political and sociological landscape.
Jansen participated in his first international Biennale in 2007, at the 12th International Print and Drawing Biennale, in Taiwan. His first solo museum exhibitions were held at the La Triennale di Milano Museum, in Milan, Italy, as a part of a traveling European museum tour, followed by two solo Museum exhibitions in Germany at the Kallmann Museum in Ismanning, Munich, and the Zitadelle Museum, in Spandau, Berlin, where his three-decade career was celebrated with an in-depth survey.His first U.S. solo museum exhibitions followed at the Rollins Museum of Art, in Winter Park, Florida, and The Baker Museum Artis-Naples, in Naples, Florida, where he resides.
His work has been noted in numerous international publications, including the The Guardian, Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest, La Repubblica, ARTNOW by Noblesee, Juxtapoz, Art News, Vanity Fair and New American Paintings.
Public collections include, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Baker Museum, The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, (MMOMA), The New Britain Museum of American Art, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rollins Museum of Art, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Foundation Calosa, The PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art and The Housatonic Museum of Art.
The artist is married to Sabrina Jansen and has two boys. He lives and works between Southwest Florida and New York City. He was noted SW Florida's only blue chip artist by GulfshoreLife magazine in 2023.
“Avant-garde” has long described creatives who break aesthetic conventions. Yet its true origins lie in the battlefield. A French term meaning “the advanced guard,” these are the souls who brave the front lines, becoming firsthand witnesses to human devastation. In his life and work, artist Marcus Jansen occupies both senses of the phrase. An Army veteran who served in the Gulf War, he paints surreal landscapes and portraits that excavate conflict and conquest, as well as their casualties and underlying power structures.
Jansen presents his audience with a complete reexamination of our visual history for a new 21st century, and although his works seem especially timely now, it’s the last 25 years that Jansen has been noted as a pioneer with critics and historians alike. Emerging with socio-politically charged works at the very early part of a new economically challenged globalized era, Jansen disrupts both historically and painterly.
Former two-time curator of the Documenta Kassel 6 in 1977 and Documenta 8 in 1987 and German art critic, Professor Dr.Manfred Schneckenburger called Jansen’s work, “one of the most important American painters of his generation." The New York Times called his work a “magisterial presentation.”
Art historian John Seed published a recent book, Disruptive Realism, in which Jansen is highlighted on the back cover alongside 43 artists, while taking an in-depth look at the works of contemporary painters who are challenging and reshaping the tradition of Realism. Jansen's unique oeuvre serves as an emotive and refreshingly insightful critique of the contemporary American and global political and sociological landscape.
Jansen participated in his first international Biennale in 2007, at the 12th International Print and Drawing Biennale, in Taiwan. His first solo museum exhibitions were held at the La Triennale di Milano Museum, in Milan, Italy, as a part of a traveling European museum tour, followed by two solo Museum exhibitions in Germany at the Kallmann Museum in Ismanning, Munich, and the Zitadelle Museum, in Spandau, Berlin, where his three-decade career was celebrated with an in-depth survey.His first U.S. solo museum exhibitions followed at the Rollins Museum of Art, in Winter Park, Florida, and The Baker Museum Artis-Naples, in Naples, Florida, where he resides.
His work has been noted in numerous international publications, including the The Guardian, Boston Globe, Rolling Stone, Architectural Digest, La Repubblica, ARTNOW by Noblesee, Juxtapoz, Art News, Vanity Fair and New American Paintings.
Public collections include, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Baker Museum, The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, (MMOMA), The New Britain Museum of American Art, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The Rollins Museum of Art, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Foundation Calosa, The PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art and The Housatonic Museum of Art.
The artist is married to Sabrina Jansen and has two boys. He lives and works between Southwest Florida and New York City. He was noted SW Florida's only blue chip artist by GulfshoreLife magazine in 2023.