Marcus JansenDECADEPaintings From The Last 10 YearsLa Triennale di Milano MuseumSeptember 3 - September 22, 2016
Decade is the first Italian solo exhibition by Marcus Jansen ( New York , 1968) , the American artist who has touched different levels of productivity. Jansen started painting very young and developed the Expressionist style, that's instinctive and very recognizable, he began gradually addressing more complex issues such as war, the human being and his society.
"From Robert Henri, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jansen is an american, or better a newyorker, to the marrow. I think he represents, together with british artists Cecily Brown and Peter Doig, the best part of the great contemporary art, that is rising, in terms of criticism, audience."
- Paolo Manazza, Art Critic,(Founder of Artslife.com), Milano, Italy
Marcus Jansen, b. 1968, New York, New York is a cartographer of conflict. He has been called a pioneer in redefining urban landscape painting for the last two decades. A former soldier and world traveler since the age of one year old, Jansen was first influenced by an emerging and rebellious Graffiti art movement from New York City on a trip back from Germany in 1986. His first International book was published by the leading book publisher SKIRA Editore, Milan Italy and is titled, “Marcus Jansen - DECADE” where he joins international titles like Jean Michel Basquiat, Francis Bacon and others. The DECADE monograph is being formally introduced by former director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn, Prof. Dr. Dieter Rontein 2016 and has foreword by notorious London Art Dealer Steve Lazarides, also known as Banksy’s first agent.
Discovered and mentored by former Museum Director and historian Jerome A. Donson, (Director of the American Vanguard Exhibitions Europe 1961), who was responsible for preparing exhibitions for artists like Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline. Donson referred to Jansen's work as being "reminiscent of the Ash-Can School and referred to him as "the innovator of Modern Expressionism", in Jansen’s French published catalog in 2005.
Among Jansen's International prizes was being selected finalist for the 12th International Print & Drawing Biennale in Taiwan and the Fleurieu Art Prize 2013 Biennale, Australia noted as the highest valued landscape painting prize anywhere in the world by Nigel Hurst, Director and Chief Executive, Saatchi Gallery London in 2013. Just recently he was invited to show at the largest Urban Art Biennale in Europe "Cityleaks" in Cologne Germany.
Jansen was raised between New York City and Moenchengladbach Germany where he studied briefly at the Kunstgewerbe Schule the Berufsfachschule fuer Gestaltung and completed a three year craft as a commercial house painter. Later, after his Military discharge, Jansen started selling paintings on the streets of New York before transforming his life from serving in War to a professional painter. His work are included in the U.S. Department of State, Art in Embassies Program, UNESCO in Paris France, listed in Who's Who in American Art and his Museum collections include the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA), Russia, The New Britain Museum of American Art, The PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
Jansen’s corporate commissions include Absolut Vodka, Warner Brothers, Illuminum, FIFA and Ford Motor Company.
Jansen’s upcoming first museum exhibitions will launch in Europe and the United States starting in 2016. The tour will be accompanied by a documentary film titled, "Marcus Jansen - Examine & Report", a film by John Scoular that spotlights Marcus Jansen as a painter and Art personalities including, Steve Lazarides, Lawrence Voytek, WEST Rubinstein, Noah Becker, Dieter Rampl and more.
