CHARLOTTA JANSSEN
415 Warren Street
I was born in Maine to German/Swedish parents who came to America under the Marshall plan. In 1973, my family moved to Iran, which we fled during the revolution in 1979. Back in Germany, I studied painting at the University of Arts in Berlin from 1986-1989. I dropped out and traveled the world as a street musician and performance artist. In 1991, I picked up my brushes again and started organizing art shows wherever I traveled. I moved to New York in 1995 and opened a restaurant in 1998 to showcase my work in Brooklyn.
In 2005, I started to narrow down my color spectrum to teal, white, black and rust. In 2009, I reintroduced collage and this element created a real conversation that keeps evolving. I have recently expanded my color spectrum slightly, keeping unnatural colors for the most part and adding more tones through collage to achieve a character-driven plot. This also brings in brash abstract shapes without interrupting the figurative story.
