AMERICANA

CELEBRATING OUR CHECKERED PAST AND PRESENT

This “work’s” job is to slow you down, even just a little. History is flawed, made for the flawed by the flawed and this is the struggle I set out to depict.

I start by painting with a narrow color spectrum. Generally it’s teal, white, black and iron oxide. Then I “rust” the canvas, collage it and glaze over with oil. I do collage to include a narrative or just a sound bite.  I add “retro”- collage to refer back to where the image came from (a bit like giving a tree roots) and to discretely bring in brash abstract shapes without disrupting the figurative work.

I like to narrow down the composition to three things: depth of field, shadow and light and each individual’s fight with gravity. Sports teams do it as one and each on their own which I find is powerful and well worth depicting. Each body part joins in.  Portraiture starts with your feet.

I love Americana for its great void and found myself especially comfortable in the harsh light and sharp shadows of “reportage photography” of the Farm Security Administration. Americana is very appealing for someone raised in Germany where everything concerning art (figurative or not) has to be “Bedeutungsschwanger” (pregnant with meaning). I also love iconography for its weight and it’s long historic shadow.

By marrying the two I intend to throw that long shadow straight into the void and see what happens.

About the Artist

Charlotta Janssen was born in Maine to German parents living in America under the Marshall plan. In 1973, Janssen's family moved to Iran, where they later fled during the revolution in 1979. Back in Germany, she studied painting at the University of Arts in Berlin from 1986-1989. Janssen later dropped out and traveled the world as a street musician and performance artist. In 1991, she picked up her brushes again and started organizing art shows wherever she traveled. In 1995 Janssen moved to New York. In 2000, she opened a restaurant to showcase her work in Brooklyn. In 2005, she started to narrow down her color spectrum to teal, white, black and rust and in 2009 she reintroduced collage and this element created a real conversation that keeps evolving.

CV:

EDUCATION

1987-1989

• University of the Arts (HDK)
  Berlin, Germany

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014

• Threads of a Story: History Inspiring Art
  National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee
  Curated by Barbara Andrews

2013

• Threads of a Story: History Inspiring Art
  National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tennessee
  Curated by Barbara Andrews

• Threads of a Story: History Inspiring Art
  Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atrium Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

2012

• The Day Bayard Rustin Came to Town
  Memphis Public Library, Goodwyn Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
  Curated by Wang-Ying Glasgow

• Freedom Riders: Threads of a Story
  Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana

• Threads of a Story: Continued
  Gallery on High, Pottstown, Pennsylvania
  Curated by Erika Hornburg-Cooper

• Danke Fred Series
  John Davis Gallery, Hudson, New York

• Freedom Riders: Threads of a Story
  The African American Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

• Threads of a Story: History Inspiring Art
  Troy University Rosa Parks Museum, Montgomery, Alabama
  Curated by Georgette M. Norman

2011

• Freedom Riders
  Playmakers Theatre, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina

• Threads of a Story: History Inspiring Art
  Nashville Public Library Courtyard Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
  Curated by Elyse Adler

• Freedom Riders
  WGBH Educational Foundation, Boston, Massachusetts
  Curated by Germaine Frechette

2010

• Freedom Riders
  Mountain Film Festival, Aha School of Art, Telluride, Colorado
  Curated by Barbel Hacke

• Freedom Riders and Bus Boycotters
  President's Gallery, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York
  Curated by Lisa Farrington

2009

• Can't Live the Commonest Way on Six Bits a Day
  NYSG Gallery, New York, New York

• Inappropriately Dressed
  Boltax Gallery, Shelter Island, Long Island, New York

• Americana and Recent Works
  Bridge Art Fair, New York, New York

2008

• Americana
  Bread, New York, New York

• Annals of America
  Gloria Kennedy Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

• Americana
  Gloria Kennedy Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

2007

• Americana
  The Stairwell, Brooklyn, New York

2006

• Recent Works
  East West Gallery, Milano, Italy

2002

• Cocoa Cultures
  The Boathouse in Central Park, New York, New York

2001

• Twisted Bag Mouths, Knifethrust Eyes and Legs, Legs, Legs: "Anyway Let's Dance!"
  Paris NY Studio, New York, New York

2000

• Anyway Let's Dance
  Paris NY Studio, New York, New York

1999

• Carnivores, Kitchen Cowboys & Dirty Dishes
  Paris NY Studio, New York, New York

1998

• Bitch Icons, Freak Fables & Lucid Two Faced Smiles
  Paris NY Studio, New York, New York

1996

• Sailors, Drunkards, & Prostitutes....
  Bell Café, New York, New York

1995

• The Red Door — It Was Once Red
  La Voile Rouge, Miami Beach, Florida

1994

• Miami Twilight Zone: Warming Up The Atmosphere
  Miami Beach, Florida

1993

• Old World / New World
  Tresor, Berlin, Germany

1992

• Big Foot in Blue Door
  Artist Incubator, Tokyo, Japan

• Charlotta Janssen
  Café de La Poste, Paris, France

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2012

• Resurrected Walt Cessna
  MUNCH Gallery, New York, New York

2011

• Mountain Film Festival
  Telluride Gallery of Fine Arts, Telluride, Colorado

• Prints and Paintings
  Bowery Beef and Lounge, New York, New York

• Triumph, Ritual, and Remembrance: SONY Artists Celebrate Black History Month
  Tillies of Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York

2009

• Fountain Art Fair
  Art Basel, Boltax Gallery, Miami, Florida

2007

• Art London
  Simon Sieff Gallery, London, England

• East West Art
  Stragapede, Perini Gallery, Milano, Italy

2006

• Recent Work
  East West Gallery, Milano, Italy

2003

• Shanghai Spring Art Salon
  Commerce Center, Shanghai, China

1999

• Gate To Berlin
  Zionskirche, Berlin, Germany

1997

• Brainthang
  Thread Waxing Space, New York, New York

• Not the Biennial
  New York, New York

1995

• Biennial
  New York, New York

LECTURES / GALLERY TALKS

2012

• Freedom Riders: Democracy in Action Community Event (lecture)
  Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

• Facing History and Ourselves (lecture)
  Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

2011

• Nashville Public Library Courtyard Gallery (gallery talk), Nashville, Tennessee

2010

• President's Gallery (gallery talk), John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, New York

2009

• Boltax Gallery (gallery talk), Shelter Island, Long Island, New York