Biography
Discovered by former Museum director Jerome A. Donson, (Director of the American Vanguard Exhibitions Europe 1961), in charge of traveling exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, (MOMA), New York and included preparing exhibitions for artists like Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline to name a few.
Jansen is seen by many critics as a pioneer of expressive urban landscape paintings. Donson referred to Jansen's work as being "reminiscent of the Ash-Can School and the innovator of modern expressionism", in Jansen’s first book.
Marcus Jansen was selected finalist for the Fleurieu Art Prize 2013 Biennale, Australia noted as the highest valued landscape painting prize anywhere in the world by Nigel Hurst, Director & Chief Executive, Saatchi Gallery London in 2013. Jansen is listed in Who's Who in American Art and his Museum collections include the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA), Russia, The PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Russia, The New Britain Museum of American Art, CT, the Housatonic Museum of Art, CT, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, MO, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art, Taiwan and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
Jansen is also one of the ABSOLUT VODKA artist's of this new generation along side names Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring , in addition to being corporately commissioned by Companies like Warner Brothers, FIFA and Ford Motor Company. Jansen is a US combat Veteran who transformed his life from a soldier at War to one of Americas leading expressionist painters after his Military discharge in 1997 where shortly after he in 1999 he started selling his paintings on street corners in lower Manhattan.
Jansen attended the Kunstgewerbe Schule Berufskolleg fuer Technik und Medien in Moenchengladbach Germany in 1985. His awards include the cover of New American Paintings No. 94 Alumni Publication in 2012, curated by Dan Cameron, Founder of the Project New Orleans. The Aesthetica Art Prize 2012, United Kingdom, the Laguna Art Prize 2013, Venice Italy and winner of the Dave Bown Project 5th Semiannual Award in 2012.
Jansen has participated in various International Museum exhibitions and Biennials, including the 12th. Biennial in 2007 at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, The PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art show "Anonymous" in 2013 and the recent Boca Raton Museum of Art "All Florida" exhibition in 2013.
Jansen's work has been noted in Publications like: RollingStone, Vanity Fair, Art News, The New York Time, La Repubblica and the Boston Globe. His recent project "The Art Album". by Dawud Knuckles from ART ON DEKZ, a Russell Simmons supported book released in New York City that shows Jansen’s work on the cover with some of the worlds most recognized artists inside like, Shepard Fairey, Takashi Murakami, Marlene Dumas, Kehinde Wiley, Jonathan Meese, Daniel Richter and Chuck Close.
