Residency Boynton Ave., Bronx, NY, 1969 
Marcus with Grandfather, first residency Boynton Ave., Bronx, NY, 1969 the same building where the famous funk musician Jimmy Castor lived on the upper floors.
Audrey Hines with Marcus Bronx, NY, 1969
1968-1976
​​
  • Marcus Jansen was born, 1968 in Manhattan, New York City while residing with his family in the southeastern part of the Bronx. His earliest memories are of his close Caribbean, Jamaican / Trinidadian family, who arrived in the United States in 1954 to pursue the American dream. Early joys, were listening to the Edward Hawkins Singers "Oh Happy Day," watching superhero cartoons, Sesame Street, Sandford and Son and vivid memories of his father watching news, politics, the Vietnam war, and seeing protests and Dr. Martin Luther King on TV. 
  • ​Jansen resides in the city during the time of economic decline and the emergence of a graffiti subculture on trains and walls that permanently changed the city’s visual environment around him in the early years of the 1970s. He's raised in a high riser apartment on the 12th floor by his Grandparents, aunt, and mother, a practicing nurse from Jamaica in the Soundview Park section on Boynton Ave., later joined by a German-born a businessman and historian from Germany who becomes his father​.​
  • ​The family, moves to Laurelton, Queens, where Jansen starts school. While attending PS 156 at age 6, Jansen is included in a New York City student art competition and exhibited a stunning painting of a male lion on paper at the Lever House, in Manhattan. This event introduces Jansen to the world of public art exhibitions.
  • Jansen's father feels the racial tension through the economic and racial power structures in in the late 70's and decides to move his family overseas instead.
​Laurelton changes - Documentary 1970's
PS: 156 Laurelton, Queens, NY 1973-1974
Marcus with family, Bronx NY, 1974
Moenchengladbach Germany with Mrs. Krause (Teacher), 1980
​1976-1979

  • Jansens family leaves New York City, shortly before the explosion of the punk rock and hip-hop art scene and is transplanted from NY to a very opposite economic system, to the city of Moenchengladbach, Germany, his father's birthplace, widely known also as the birthplace of artist Markus Lüpertz and Hitler's propagandist Joseph Goebbels. He is placed in a German-speaking school, and immediately faced linguistic challenges and severe racism as the only child of color in the school and town but excelled in art and sports more than academic subjects. This may have been his first encounter with racial power structures.
  • He travels to Paris, Venice, and the Netherlands for the first time and soaks in European culture and the arts.
  • He returns to his Grandparents in the Bronx, in 1979 with his family to visit and observe the city's changes for the worse economically. He starts making comparisons to the vast economic differences already in early ​adolescence and asking questions.
Modeling, 1978
Observing Impressionist painters in Paris, France, 1981
 Marcus Jansen at the iconic SOUL CENTER Nightclub in Monchengladbach Germany during breaking battles,1984

​ ​1980-1985
​​​
  • Growing up, Jansen experiences challenges with viewers understanding his paradoxical cultural influences in particular Germany and New York City, and sought to find other means of bridging social, cultural, and economic class differences in his art as well as tying them together. Politics, current events, and world history were at the forefront of discussions initiated by his historian father during much of Jansen’s upbringing.​
  • It was the vibrant German Expressionist painters and up-and-coming graffiti artists in New York and during travel to Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels, and the New York action painters that left their strongest imprint on Jansen. Attracted by movement, color, and motion, he is still drawn to these impulsive, rebellious avant-garde painters and sees a common thread between the graffiti writers and hailed contemporary masters that he explores in his work, creating a bridge of communication. ​
  • One day, 14-year-old Jansen encountered a book about Robert Rauschenberg in a Moenchengladbach, Germany, train station, and although he had never heard of the artist, was fascinated by the cover depicting instruments mounted on wood in a golden color. They exuded a strong urban, inner-city feel that he had not yet encountered.​
  • Jansen frequently returned to his native New York during summers staying with his family in the Bronx or on the upper west side of Manhattan with his God Mother during the important 80s cultural art movement over the summers and returned in 1982. A rebellious graffiti movement dominated the city's youth and served as Jansen’s first major artistic influence. He became fascinated with how art was altering the urban landscape he had left and admired those that led the way.
Marcus Jansen with former partner Marian, Netherlands, 1986 Tag name (CHOICE)
Marcus Jansen with former girlfriend and TRAZ ONE, in front of SHOE piece in Amsterdam tagging 1987.
Marcus Jansen with WEST Rubinstein, Bronx Museum of the Arts reunion in 2020
Marcus Jansen and Daisy Dee, 1993, Roermond Netherlands
1986-1988
​
  • In1986, Jansen meets Manhattan-based graffiti writer WEST Rubinstein, aka WESTONE, who had made his mark as noted in the book Graffiti Kings, by Jack Stewart, and is introduced to the artist by Jansen’s Godmother who lived on the upper west side In Manhattan. WEST inspired Jansen to paint, and Jansen cites their meeting as his first major art inspiration.
  • Gravitating toward the instinctive impulse versus what Jansen sees as regimented academics, he completed high school and at the request of his father, attended the Berufsfachschule, in Monchengladbach, for one year, where he studied graphic art (Gestaltung). Exposure to photography, design, technical drawing, painting, and color gave Jansen an understanding of the basic structure of the arts. He became bored and left, but in European tradition like Willem de Kooning, Jansen began an apprenticeship as a commercial house painter, where he was introduced to oil enamel paints that remain his medium of choice.
  • ​Jansen completed his training and spent time between Maastricht, Netherlands, and Germany. In 1987 he became friends with the Dutch Afro Caribbean performer Daisy Dee, former host of the German VIVA TV station Club Rotation, in 1987 at the iconic nightclub The Soul Center in Moenchengladbach, Germany, a stomping ground for American G.I.’s and Hip Hop emergence of the early 1980s. She became Jansen’s biggest supporter and started to give him graffiti commissions. Traveling throughout Europe, he was exposed to more art and culture visiting cities like Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, and Switzerland.
Korea, Camp Casey 1993
Private Marcus Jansen and PFC Lawrence Gibson Gulf war 1991
Marcus Jansen Vilseck Germany with Army Unit members 1996
Marcus Jansen street art pieces in 1st Infantry Division Barracks, with Army's buddy "Five" posing Infront of his work 1997 before his discharge.
1989-1996
​
  • ​Not being able to make a living with art, Jansen enlisted in the U.S. Armed Forces in 1989 and completes Basic Training at Fort Leonard wood, MO and was immediately deployed to Operation Desert Storm in August 1990. He returned in April 1991 and was stationed, among many other areas, in “Dragon City”, Dharan, close to a devastating missile attack. On February 25, 1991, he witnessed the explosion from his guard duty tower and was flown by helicopter to the frontline battlefield toward the end of his tour, where he saw the devastation left by Allied forces. Returning from that tour, Jansen had more questions than answers.
  • ​He was deployed to the demilitarized zone in Korea for a year and after returning where he was introduced to the first time seeing an aerial drone. He underwent art therapy treatment at Walter Reed Hospital, in Maryland where he was stationed for three years. His artwork got the counselor's attention during art therapy classes for PTSD, inspiring Jansen to think about painting again and was spiritually influenced by his well-known Uncle, Dr. Samuel George Hines who was a mentor and Pastor in the Washington, D.C. community including the last three Presidents of the United States and preached at the "Church of God," heavily involved in the reconciliation of Urban communities. Video: Senate Session | July 20, 1994 | C-SPAN.org​​


SGT Marcus Jansen at Vilseck Barracks with first works on cardboard, Germany 1997
  • Jansen is stationed in Germany for his last duty assignment with the 1st Infantry Division in Vilseck, Bavaria where his first art works begin to surface in the barracks he stays in.
  • He discharged and moved in with then-girlfriend Michaela Hansen, an economics major from RWTH Aachen University, originally from Greifswald, in former East Germany who grew up behind the Berlin wall who was influential and underlined the artist economic opinions and began painting war-torn and disenfranchised urban sceneries that are inspired by highlighting the artistic character as well as the economic differences coming from them in the U.S.reflecting on his roots.

​1997-2003
​
Jansen is becoming more critical of U.S. interventions and attitudes regarding foreign policies and undeclared military interventions. He was discharged honorably in 1997 with the rank of sergeant. His own art career began in the U.S. Army barracks in Vilseck Germany painting secretly while living in the Army Barracks until discharged and opening a studio in Aachen the same year, arranging a debut exhibition at Aula Carolina. For the first time since his discharge, the exhibition is noted by the Aachener Zeitung. Jansen approached Dr. Annette Lagler, director at the Ludwig Forum for International Art, for guidance, while living only blocks away from the museum. He shared photos of work from 1997 and she gave helpful advice to the young artist. ​

Daisy Dee
Urban Combat, 1996, Collection LL Cool J
Jansen’s longtime friend Daisy Dee originally from the Dutch island of Curacao, commissioned Jansen for two works that were later sold to LL Cool J .  Difficulties finding gallery representation in Germany, he decided to leave Aachen and return to his roots in New York City to test his work under the name (MEPS Millenium and signed his work MEPS), with a larger international audience while having difficulty holding other jobs he wins hos fir start competition called ORB.E spoored by Def Jam producer Russel Simmons and shows at the Copa Cabana Nightclub in Manhattan where he is approached and complimented by one of his idols Crazy Legs from Rock Steady Crew..​
African Student, 1999
Shadows, 1997
Hollywood Actor, John Ortiz Los Angeles with Marcus work.
Marcus Jansen on Prince Street and Broadway NYC, 1999
​
  • ​Jansen set up on the street corner of Prince Street and Broadway with artist friend Carlos Ramsey to sell their works in 1999 and became part of the early group of artists referred to as “Princestreetkings” who displayed their art in SOHO. He commutes from the North Bronx and the Upper Westside in Manhattan to Lon Island on weekends to bartender so he can sell work during the week downtown. It is then that one of his first buyers, Hollywood actor John Ortiz, purchased “Harlem Deli” (30X 40) while filming a movie with Julian Schnabel in Manhattan. He also sold his highest-priced street painting to date for $750 "City Stroll," to now New York art dealer Monya Rowe. He remains on the same street corner for several months before realizing the power of the internet.
Rico Suarez (left) , co-founder of Jansen studios with Marcus Jansen in front of WEST piece at the Graffiti wall of Fame on 108th and Park ave in Harlem, New York City, 1994
SGT Marcus Jansen with unit member SGT Jody Clark and Studio Co-Founder SGT Rico Suarez (right), MD, 1994
  • The same year Jansens best friend Robert Suarez (RICO), and co-founder of his first studio dies suddenly while serving in the Military. Jansen finds out late and starts a new direction in painting.
  • ​​His painting “subway82” was chosen in an NYC Russel Simmons art competition titled O.R.B.E to show at the Copacabana night club and The International Independent Film Festival, Madison Square Garden, New York, and had his first Gallery showing in New York at Stricoff Fine Art in Chelsea after being invited by owner Jeff Stricoff who saw his work in a magazine.
Prince Street and Broadway, New York City and at bartending job in Long Island, 1999 (right)
Marcus Jansen on Prince Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan 1999 
Corner of Prince Street and Broadway, NYC 1999
Filmmaker Spike Lee at Fort Motor Company being gifted Jansen first book after Commission 2003
Corner of Prince Street and Broadway, NYC 1999
Marcus with aspiring actress Corner of Prince Street and Broadway, NYC 1999
Filmmaker Spike Lee at Fort Motor Company being gifted Jansen first book after Commission 2003
Marcus Jansen with Ford Motor Company 100 Centennial Anniversary Paintings at Charles H. Wright Museum 2003
Michala Jansen with Jansen boys 2004
​
  • ​In 2003, Jansen’s first son is born and Jansen received his biggest commission from the Ford Motor Company and shows at the Dearborn’, Charles H. Wright Museum, for a display of the Ford Motor Company Paintings, Michigan in Detroit where his first catalog his handed over to Filmmaker Spike Lee. This becomes Jansen's first Museum affiliation.
Richard Beavers with Marcus Jansen at Jansen studios and SBARRO where the two met in 2001
Richard Beavers with Marcus Jansen in Brooklyn at Richard Beavers Gallery, 2019
Marcus Jansen with Richard Beavers Infront of Nathanial Mary Quinn work in Miami, 2022
​​
  • Considering family life first, Jansen left the street corners thinking he could be more effective online in an early internet era and moved to Atlanta in August 2001 with his then-wife. A month later, the September 11 attack took place in New York, where many of his “princestreetkings” friends witnessed the event and left the city. The attacks on September 11th inspired a visual investigation into 21st century political, racial and economic environments and meeting Richard Beavers at SBARRO on Times Square in New York City where both first meet in person.
  • Urban art enthusiast and cultural game-changer in Bed Stuy Brooklyn, Richard Beavers, saw Jansen’s work in an ad in (see right), The Source magazine.  An MTV employee at the time whom Jansen encouraged to open an art gallery, Beavers became Jansen's first New York collector and later his art dealer, and appeared in Jansen’s first film. Beavers started selling Jansen’s work nationally, and focused on elevating his Brooklyn community, placing works with NBA New York Knicks all-star Carmelo Anthony and Jimmy Butler  as well as noted collector Peggy Cooper-Cafritz from his gallery on Marcus Garvey Blvd.​
  • Jansen starts exploring global topics and the human condition in the post-911 era in his work, drawing upon his own worldly experiences and parallels between historic and contemporary world politics and unbalanced economics using the urban landscape as the stage.​​
  • He moves to Florida with his family, where he continued working, initially unknowingly not far from where the 20th-century master Robert Rauschenberg who resides on Captiva island. He Explores economics in urban communities through landscapes.
  • 2004, Jansen incorporates stencils informed by his street art roots, in addition to often collages in his work at a time when many artists of color in America were focusing on black identity images, his work explores power structures via politics, surveillance and economics through mostly forgotten urban environments inspired by his native Bronx, NY in the 70's, instead and is inspired by traditional elements of African American art making, and compositions such as by Robert Rauschenberg and Romare Bearden collage techniques but adds immediately recognizable abstract expressionist brushwork with overlapping elements and socio-political commentary in his work.
Ricard Beavers and Marcus Jansen at Florida studios 2020
Art dealer Richard Beavers at Marcus Jansens South Bronx studios, 2020
Richard Beavers and Marcus Jansen at Richard Beavers Gallery, Brooklyn, 2015
Streets, 30x40" 2008
Battle of the Beast, 2002

"Jansen’s mixed-media work such as Streets (2008) was inspired by Romare Bearden and Robert Rauschenberg’s use of collage and found objects. The nearly monochromatic scene in Empty Plates (2007) parallels photographs by Robert Farber with its use of gradient color, while details found in the corner of the painting pay homage to Abstract Expressionists like Willem de Kooning—another of Jansen’s inspirations. In both Streets and Empty Plates, Jansen employs a central line to divide the composition, a technique also seen in John Steuart Curry’s Fire Diver (1934). By including Jansen’s artistic influences and contemporaries, this exhibition highlights the visual, technical, and thematic correlations among them."

- Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Marcus Jansen with first French dealer, Jean Marc - Pontet at his first Paris show (Voice of a Generation) and the late French Auctioneer, Pierre de Saint Cyr, Paris 2005.
Photo by Marcus Jansen: Robert Rauschenberg with Actress Sharon Stone at charity auction 2004
Marcus Jansen with artist Lawrence Gartel Art Basel Miami Beach 2006
Sabrina Jansen with Casterline Goodman Gallery, 2019
​
​2004-2009​
​
  • ​Jansen had the opportunity to show and meet with his much-admired artist Robert Rauschenberg in support of a local Arts for Act charity at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery in 2004 almost immediately after arriving in Florida, and was introduced to him personally by Grammy-winning musician Kat Epple after Rauschenberg viewed Jansen’s painting and complimented his work at a group show at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery while also meeting Rauschenberg's art production director Lawrence Voytek who he later works with. 
  • He also meets Father of Digital Art, Laurence Gartel who mentors Jansen for his first catalog. (See above photo), Infront of Jansens painting, "Search and Rescue."
  • The same year, Jansen meets art historian and curator Jerome A. Donson. The former director of the famous American Vanguard Exhibitions 1961 that traveled to Europe and included Rauschenberg, Franz Kline, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and others, discovered Jansen's work after seeing it in a gallery show window that drew him and his wife Naomi in.
  • Donson wrote about the artist's work in Jansen's first French catalog, "Modern Urban-Expressionism, The Art of Marcus Antonius Jansen," in which he called Jansen the “innovator of Modern Expressionism” and compared it with the Ash Can School.
  • Jansen is picked up by MW Gallery lead by Robert Casterline from the Casterline Goodman Gallery in Aspen and introduced to the international fair market in Miami during art Basel for the first time.
​​​
Jerome A. Donson, American Vangard Exhibitions, 1961 Europe. (Click on image for details)
Marcus Jansen with the American Vanguard Exhibitions curator Jerome A, Donson, 2004
​​
  • Jansen is invited to participate in the Tampa Museum of Art, "Under/Current/ Overview 8,"  for the first time in a museum survey exhibition in the United States.
  • Founder, Crosby Kemper from the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art added two works to its collection in 2006. These become Jansen’s first works purchased for a U.S. Museum. The next year Jansen participated in the 8th International Biennale in Russia and had his work “The Swallows Symbol” placed into his first international Museum the Moscow Museum of Modern Art permanent collection.
  • Jansen’s second son is born and shortly after again was commissioned this time for a politically critical satire as part of the Warner Brothers 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz. He was selected for the 12th International Print & Drawing Biennial in Taiwan with juror David Kiehl, from the Whitney Museum of Art, shortly thereafter, as one of only nine other Americans in 2007.
  • Jansen began painting large-scale works in the post/911 era and was mostly alarmed by the emerging surveillance state in 2008 and 2009 and corporate power structures through later distorted faceless portraits.
  • His wife Michaela Jansen is diagnosed and passes of cancer. Her last film footage after a two-year battle was filmed in 2010 for a documentary titled A Painter Allegory.
  • He addressed human concerns during this period through politics, social issues, the patenting of pigs' DNA after his son's diagnosis with autism, and in 2009, his wife’s diagnosis with cancer and had a painting included in the New Britain Museum of American Art permanent collection.
Cyber Surveillance on wasteland - 2009, Marcus Jansen
sunset west twenty-third street ~ 1905, john sloan
Unit A second attached studio opens in 2012 and is used to shoot the art documentary Marcus Jansen Examine and Report in 2016 and becomes a local catalyst that transforms the downtown Fort Myers neigborhood ..
​​2010-2015​
​
  • Jansen was commissioned by Absolut Vodka, becoming part of the next generation in the tradition of popular of Absolut artists following in the footsteps of Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, and Keith Haring. Chief Curator at the Orange County Museum of Art Dan Cameron selects “Creeping Obstacles In Kansas” for the cover of New American Paintings Volume 94.
  • ​In 2011, the same year, Jansen’s wife and longtime supporter died at age 36 after a two-year struggle with cancer, leaving Jansen with two sons to raise on his own. Emotionally and financially bereft, he restarted his art career from scratch after losing almost everything he had due to endless medical bills​ after the death of his wife. He begins painting faceless men in suites exploring anonymity and power. 
  • He shows at the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center,  in Fort Myers immediately after his wife's passing in 2011, with a groundbreaking opening, titled "A Painters Allegory," drawing thousands of visitors being the largest attended art show at the Center to date accompanied by a short documentary Marcus Jansen A Painters Allegory produced by Fort Myers Film Festival founder Eric Raddatz.
  • The Naples Museum of Art included Jansen in its annual exhibition (Florida Contemporary) in 2014.​
  • Instead of retreating, he expands opens a large public studio space in what used to be a segregated area in Fort Myers Florida the residence of Robert Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, and artist Darryl Pottorf that permanently changed the local art scene and brought in clients from all the world and the local community together on Martin Luther King Blvd.
  • ​He began departing from two-dimensional landscapes and moved to three-dimensional tabletops that he calls "Aerial Views" in 2011. The Aerial Views added sculptural elements to Painting made from unused tabletops emerging from used mixing color pallets into three-dimensional, aerial painted landscape works.
Absolut Jansen, 2012
Departure to his "Aerial views" series in 2011, seeing landscapes 3D from an aerial view as he witnessed form his Gul War tour in a Helicopter ride in 1991. (The Overseer) on table top, 2011
Highway of Death result of American Bombing, Iraq 1991
Departure to his "Aerial views" series in 2011, seeing landscapes 3D from an aerial view as he witnessed form his Gul War tour in a Helicopter ride in 1991. (The Overseer) on table top, 2011
  • ​He also creates a critical series of anonymous men in suit portraits who’s faces are distorted. He continued to play with disruptive realism in his works while exploring anonymity and power in these new figures. His first “Faceless” series emerged in 2011 and was released in 2012.

Jansen departs from his landscapes and investigates structures of power and anonymity thorough faceless men in suites in 2011.
Faceless #1, 2012.
​ Permanent Collection: Permm Museum of Contemporary Art, Russia
Jansens new partner and classical piano musician, Sabrina Gruber becomes the artist photographer and biggest supporter.
Marcus Jansen, with dog Lucy, 2015 UNIT B studios Florida with first Faceless Colonialist painting
Sabrina Gruber with Jansen boys at studio 2011
Filmmaker John Scoular with Art Dealer Steve Lazarides, London, 2016 on the set.
Film poster Marcus Jansen  Examine and Report, 2016
Marcus Jansen Whistleblower, Steve Lazarides Gallery in front of Jansen work,  2014
Marcus Jansen signing his first print release at  Lazarides Gallery, 2014
​
  • Street arts leading art authority and BANKSY's agent,  Steve Lazarides, invited Jansen to show in London at Lazarides Gallery in 2014 displaying his "Arial Views" for the first time internationally. The show becomes a career changer for Jansen’s international exposure and Jansen is called “A Cartographer of Conflict” in his review by the London press. Steve later also appears in Jansen’s art film documentary Examine and Report and writes the foreword to Jansen’s first Monograph in 2016, Marcus Jansen DECADE.
  • Jansen was later included in various important group exhibitions curated by Lazarides that highlight the gallery's roster of artists.
  • Jansen is invited to show solo show with Roberta Britto in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2014. The artist attends the exgibition.
  • ​​In 2013, Jansen was named a winner of the Arte Laguna Biennale Prize, in Venice, curated by Sabine Schaschl, (Director and Curator of Kunsthaus Basel, Switzerland) where he was asked to stage a solo exhibition in Italy for the first time. The show was publicized by Rolling Stone, Arte, XL Repubblica, and ESPOARTE
  • Jansen had his first solo show in New York City at the Castle Fitz John’s gallery in the Lower East Side organized by his longtime Brooklyn dealer Richard Beavers. The show “Future Grounds” gains national press art world attention and becomes the first gallery to show his Aerial Views in the U.S..​​​
Marcus Jansen with Ron English and Clark V Fox Art Basel Miami Beach
"Art is the new Founding Father," 108x88" 2015 first Faceless Colonialist subject painted in 2015
Decolonize series 2023
  • In 2015, Jansen diverts from his men in suites portraits to critically depicting historic colonialist figures and re-examines history in more contemporary terms through his lens of distortion and often mocking previously hailed elite figures and colonialism and the merciless capitalistic foundation it brought along on the backs of people of color at large. Jansen draws from his own personal experiences in his childhood and adolescence trying to integrate into a European culture as the only child of color. as well as a University Thesis by his father in History titled:  The War of Independence or the American Revolution that was no revolution: Another look at the reasons
MMXX - Colonialist subject on horses
Statue Removal, 2020
60 Americans, 2015
Art Voices founder, Terrence Sanders and Marcus Jansen, New York City, 60 Americans Exhibition. 2015

Suicidal Thoughts
Casper David Friedrich 
With Art Historian, Prof Dr Dieter Ronte and Collector and Director of Brandhorst Museum, Munich, Udo Brandhorst and his wife
2016, Marcus Jansen Examine and Report by Emmy award winning Filmmaker, John Scholar
Hans Jansen, Jones Beach Long Island, 1970
Hans Jansen, 1962

​2016-2018​
​​
  • ​Jansen’s father and mentor Hans Jansen, perhaps his strongest academic influence, died four months before Jansen’s first solo museum exhibition in Europe at La Triennale di Milano Museum. The exhibition, “DECADE—paintings from the Last Ten Years,” dominated Italian headlines, and critics picked it as one of the top 10 shows to see in Italy next to Basquiat, Monet, and others. Jansen was in part documented in film by Italian Filmmaker Tiziano Rossi titled Portrait in Steps.
  • A headline in EXPOART magazine read, “A New Star is born?” In a review by Italian art critic Igor Zanti. The exhibition is inaugurated by art historian Dr. Elmar Zorn and curated by Dr. Brooke Lynn McGowan and Rossella Farinotti.
  • Jansen's book Marcus Jansen DECADE is published by Skira Editore, in Milan. The 10-year survey of works is released worldwide includes Jansen’s “Aerial View” series being published, and the first international film is produced by Emmy-winning filmmaker and director John Scoular, who presented Jansen as the subject of the film Examine and Report, to be later shown at a Word Premiere at the Fort Myers Film Festival, winning the title of Best Local Film and East Hampton’s Film Festival where it wins Best short documentary film.
  • ​It highlights the influences that made Jansen's work what it is today; featuring art dealer Steve Lazarides, Robert Rauschenberg's art fabricator Lawrence Voytek, art historian Dr. Brooke Lynn Mcgowan, and major Jansen collector Dieter Rampl, chairman of the Hypo-KunsthalleMunich, Noah Becker, founder of Whitehot magazine, NY, WEST Rubenstein, and others with a cover photo taken by his wife Sabrina Jansen.
  • In 2017, New York based curator Brooke Lynn Mcgowan, Ph.D, organizes Jansen's first major survey in California at San Franciscos Weisenstein Gallery, tilted, Obscure Lines between Fact and fiction." The show is highlighted by writer Dewitt Cheng in Artillery Magazine. 
"It is with great sadness that we have learned of the death of Prof. Dr. Manfred Schneckenburger, who gave important impulses to world art exhibition documenta in Kassel with twice being involved. documenta 6 (1977)."
Prof Dr Elmar Zorn (rear) with  Jürgen Kolbe, Joseph Beuys und Andy Warhol
Curator Prof. Dr Elmar Zorn, Former director at Kunst museum Bonn, Dr Dieter Ronte, Gallerist Matthias Kellermann and PR person, Cordula Giesen in front of "Revolutionary" Elites, in Duesseldorf Germany 2017
From left to right: Sabrina and Marcus Jansen with studio manager Lauren Morales and Art Historian Brooke Lynn Mcgowan Ph.D in Berlin. 2018
  • A first European solo museum tour was organized by Art Historian Prof Dr. Elmar Zorn from Munich and began in conjunction with the Milan, Italy show at the La Triennale di Milano, Italy curated by Brooke Lynn Mcgowan, NY, and Rosella Faranotti, Milan, in September 2016,. It had six showings in Europe proceeding to ‘Kunst & Kultur zu Hohenaschau e.-V.“, to The Kallmann Museum, Ismanning, the Heitsch Gallery, Munich, the Traunstein Kirche in Traunstein, Germany to the Zitadelle Museum, Spandau, Berlin, Germany, and later to ​Galerie AMART, Vienna with a final showing in May 2019.
  • German art book publisher Hirmer Verlag Munich published Jansen's first International German/English language book for his German museum tour in 2017 titled Marcus Jansen Aftermath, including commentary by art critic Prof. Dr. Manfred Schneckenburger; two-time Documenta Kassel curator, who referred to Jansen as “one of the most important American painters of his generation”; Prof. Dr. Dieter Ronte, former director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn and Vienna; art critic Gottfried Knapp from the Suddeutsche Zeitung; and art curator Dr. Elmar Zorn.
  • Dr. Birgit Loffler, director of Das Maximum Museum in Traunstein, Germany, introduced Jansen’s work at the Traunstein Klosterkirche, where Jansen showed a series of retrospective works in its last exhibition. He was later represented by Galerie Kellermann in Düsseldorf, Germany for two years.​
Prof Dr Manfred Schneckenburger introducing Jansen's work to Munich 2017 at Kallmann Museum, Ismaning.
Art Critic Prof. Dr. Manfred Schneckenberger with Marcus Jansen at Kallmann Museum, Ismaning
Marcus Jansen, Kallmann Musuem , Ismanning Germany 2017 Curated by Art Historian Dr. Elmar Zorn, Munich
Source: Gabriele Münter- and Johannes Eichner Stiftung, Munich; reprinted in Gabriele Münter: The Search for Expression 1906-1917, exhibition catalogue, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 2005.
Colonialist Propaganda Poster - 1930s German advertising poster by Ludwig Hohlwein (1874-1949) 
Jansen Decolonialize Monotypes
Marcus Jansen at Galerie Kellermann, Duesseldorf, Germany 2018
Rollins Museum of Art Director, Ena Heller and curator Dr. Gisela Carbonell with Marcus, in front of Marcus Jansen's Faceless Colonialists paintings.
Marcus Jansen at Galerie Kellermann, Duesseldorf, Germany 2018
Marcus Jansen and guests with Art dealer, Richard Beavers at Rollins Museum of Art Reception
​
  • Jansen's first Germany-held exhibition in Munich. One of t the homes of the German Expressionist movement in 1911, "Der Blaue Reiter," formed in Munich by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and the young Paul Klee. The exhibition consisted of 10 large works as a featured artist at the Kallmann Museum Ismanning and later a mid-career survey at the Zitadelle Museum, in Berlin, both becoming the first German museums to celebrate Jansen’s work just before his 50th birthday during a traveling museum exhibition for the artist organized by German curator Dr Elmar Zorn in collaboration with Galerie Kellermann, Duesseldorf..
  • Robert Casterline and Jordan Goodman, owners of Casterline Goodman Gallery, showed Jansen in a solo exhibition, “Now And Then” in Aspen during the 2018 ArtCrush at the Aspen Museum of Art, where noted collectors Amy and John Phelan purchased his work for their private collection.
  • ​The Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco hosts Jansen's first Westcoast survey, titled "Marcus Jansen, Obscure lines between fact and fiction," curated by Brooke Lynn Mcgowan Ph.D and Director, Rowland Weinstein.
  • Jansen’s permanent collection works were highlighted by a museum for the first time in his inaugural U.S. museum feature, “Deconstructing Marcus Jansen,” at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, curated by Jade Powers. Not long after, Jansen was approached by Curator Dr. Gisela Carbonell to show at the Rollins Museum of Art for his first U.S. solo exhibition in 2020 while setting up his new studio on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in downtown Fort Myers a former segregated area which served as a catalyst to change the neighborhoods public image.
The Pussy Cat Doll group singer, Nicole Scherzinger and Marcus Jansen at Marcus Jansen MLK Studios, Florida.
The Pussy Cat Doll group singer, Nicole Scherzinger with dealer Lisa Burgess and Marcus Jansen at Marcus Jansen MLK Studios, Florida.
SKEME, with Marcus Jansen at Bronx Museum Henry Chalfant opening.
Magda Danysz with Marcus Jansen at Galerie Danysz, Paris, France
Lisa Burgess from Burgess Contemporary with Marcus Jansen and wife Sabrina Jansen at Art Miami with Purvis Young paintings.
Henry Chalfant with Marcus Jansen at Bronx Museum Reception Henry Chalfant retrospective.
Marcus Jansen with former PNB Nation Clothing Co-Founder BLUSTERONE, Bronx, NY at Jansen Studios.2019
Jansen at his Bronx studios,2019
Sabrina and Marcus Jansen at their Bronx studios, 2019
Marcus Jansen with artist Genesis Tremaine and partner at The Bronx Museum of the Arts Gala, 2022
Bronx Native store owner Amaurys Grullon with Marcus Jansen in his studio neighborhood in the South Bronx, 2019
Artist and writer, Gregory Delahaba, Marcus and Sabrina Jansen in Miami

2019-2020
​​
  • Jansen returned to his native Bronx New York in 2019 and opened a second studio in the Port Morris/Motthaven neighborhood right before the outbreak of COVID while becoming part of the art community at E.132nd Street in the South Bronx.
  • Jansen was invited to collaborate with French Street art authority Magda Danysz in Paris for a solo exhibition titled “Stop Look and Listen” and showed at his first two Asian art fairs, Art021, in China, and Teipai Dangdai, in Taiwan, with Galerie Danysz.
  • Jansen officially announced the formation of the Marcus Jansen Foundation Fund to help mental illness charities and low-income children in the arts.
  • He was commissioned by Pussy Cat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger in Los Angeles the same year organized by his Florida dealer Lisa Burgess.
  • ​The University of Michigan Museum of Art acquired a large Jansen painting, “Hide Out" (84 X 72) for its permanent collection. Jansen had his New York Film Premiere at the East Hampton TV Festival with Marcus Jansen Examine and Report, winning an award for Best Art TV Pilot Documentary, and was featured in an artist profile in The Epoch Times.
  • The same year he prepared for his first U.S. solo museum show at the Rollins Museum of Art at Rollins College in 2020 and survey at the Baker Museum, in Naples, Florida, in 2021. His work “Plot #2” (48 x 60)” was placed in the permanent collection at The Alfond Collection of Contemporary Art, Rollins Museum of Art.
  • French Art dealer Almine Rech is invited to represent Jansen globally and to present him solo in Paris in 2021 and in London in 2022. The gallery announced the representation of the artist in December 2020. ​​​
Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, with artist Otis Kwame, Marcus Jansen and Art Dealer Almine Ruiz-Picasso at Matador, Miami.
2021-2023
​
  • After the first two Almine Rech solo shows in Paris and in London and his first Florida solo Museum show at the Rollins Museum of Art which is highlighted in New York Times Magazine, followed by the Baker Museum, six other shows curated by Almine Rech and Richard Beavers Gallery in Brooklyn all sell out.
  • ​Jansen is highlighted in the New York Times for the second time in a year, while The Bronx Museum becomes the first New York City Museum to acquire Jansen’s work into its permanent collection.​​
  • The Baker Museum includes Behind Walls #3 in its permanent collection after his appearance in his solo exhibition titled Marcus Jansen, Two Decades of Relevance in 2022. Jansen shows in his third solo Gallery appearance at Almine Rech in Shanghai titled "In the Land of Silhouettes," in March of 2023, and is included in the latest group show at The Rollins Museum of Art in Orlando, Florida.
  • Art historian John Seed published a recent book and introduction essay of Jansen, titled, “More Disruption,” Representational Art in flux, examining 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.
NBA Star Jimmy Butler Collection: Marcus Jansen Crippled in the Now | Oil enamel on canvas | 72 x 60 in | 2022 | Courtesy of Richard Beavers Gallery hanging behind KAWS Chairs. Architectual Digest Magazine 
Robert Rauschenberg's Art Production Director Lawrence Voytek with Marcus Jansen in studio with Man and Machine series, 2023
License Images
​Copyright Permission - All Rights reserved
​© 2004 Marcus Antonius Jansen/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, New York
VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn