Solo Exhibitions
– 2024 – 1.June-13.July – Buchhandlung&Kunst am Wall, Aurich – Germany
– 2024 – Fall – Gallery Studio h49, Mainz – Germany
– Permanent viewing and mediation – at the curator M7, Aurich – Germany
– 2022 September – “Bilder auf Rost/Zeit”, Gannet Design, Heimisbach – Switzerland
– 2022 August – Open Garden, Aurich – Germany
– 2022 April /Mai – ”Bilder auf und aus gerostetem Metal und gebranntem Holz”, Buchhandlung&Kunst am Wall, Aurich – Germany
– 2020 Jan/Feb – Gannet Design, Heimisbach – Switzerland
Group Exhibitions
– 2024 May – “Evolve Conceptual Art Vol.2” – Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
– 2024 March – “Delirium” – Shibuya Hikarie – Tokyo, Japan
– 2023 September “Monster Exhibition” – Shibuya Hikarie – Tokyo, Japan
– 2023 May – “Evolve Conceptual Art Exhibition Vol.1” – Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
– December 2021 – “Masterclass”, Buchhandlung&Kunst am Wall, Aurich – Germany
Competitions
– 2022 – Finalist Public Art – Sculpture competition 2023 – Kulturstiftung Spiekeroog – Germany
– 2022 – Kunst und Bau „Schulhaus Stöckacker“, Bern – Switzerland
– 2022 – Kunsttage Dornum, Ostfriesland – Germany
– 2021 – Art Colorado Convention Center Expansion, Colorado – USA
– 2021 – Luxembourg Art Prize – Luxembourg
Publications
– Book: Art Folio Annual, 2022 – USA
– Interview: Art-Depesche – Bilder auf Rost – Ulfert Janssen im Interview
– Ulfert Janssen is represented by:
+ Germany – art curator Michael Sieben – M7 – Aurich
+ Japan – art curator Yoko Yuasa – Tokyo
– Member of Visual Arts Association Switzerland (visarte #19980) –
Biography
Ulfert Janssen
Ulfert Janssen (1972) is a multidisciplinary artist from Germany now living in Switzerland. He was born and raised in East Frisia, a region in north-west Germany, near the North Sea.
He works predominantly in painting and sculpture using rusted metal and charred wood. His colorful cosmopolitan background is visible in his inventive approach as an artist, and his continuous explorations to bring different worlds together in his artworks.
From a young age, his time and love belonged to drawing, painting, and working with wood. He took painting lessons from the age of 12 with the German artist Bodo Olthoff. His pursuit for learning creative skills continued with years of studying in La Tour de Peilz, Switzerland and Pasadena, USA. at the Art Center College of Design, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Product Design (under the direction of concept artist Scott Robertson and Neville Page among others).
In parallel to his artistic practice, he worked for 10 years as car designer for the Renault-Nissan group in Barcelona, Seoul, and Tokyo. In 2012, he decided to focus on his career as a multidisciplinary artist, and established his own studio in Switzerland.
During his parallel career, he continued his education in various techniques of fine arts, and kept on brushing up his skills under the direction of artists such as Bryon Fitzpatrick.
The current focus of Ulfert Janssen’s work is the processing of IRON as artistic material. By exposing especially prepared metal plates to a combination of natural and artificially triggered processes of decay he creates metal canvases, extending the idea of a traditional canvas. This process leads to works of art on predominantly rusted surfaces combined with specific paints and protective varnishes.
Ulfert Janssen also repeatedly worked with WOOD throughout his years of apprenticeship and studies. This magnificent, archaic material of mother nature is transformed into a carrier of paintings, a wooden canvas, through preparation with tools such as a circular saw or milling machine, and with a flamethrower torch, exposing wood to the natural element of FIRE.
His explorative work with metal and wood has varying characters: Some of his methods help develop materials patiently over time, other methods are an immediate assault on the material. Common goal of all these artistic processes is the creation of lines and shapes, structures and atmospheres on the surface and in space. Some surfaces are expressive on their own, allowing the artist not to intervene at all or only gently, leaving them at peace, to speak for themselves. Other surfaces appear to be waiting for the artist to pick up their dynamic appearance, to echo their expression.
Studio/Atelier location:
3453 Heimisbach
Map
Contact– Ulfert Janssen:
ulfertjanssen@gmail.com