HELLO MARCUS, THANK YOU FOR SPEAKING TO US. LET’S START WITH INFLUENCE. WHO OR WHAT HAS HAD THE BIGGEST IMPACT ON YOUR PRACTICE AND VISUAL LANGUAGE OVER THE YEARS?

I am not sure if it was any singular entity or person, but more a combination of different cultural factors and exposures that stimulated me. I highly admired the early graffiti writers in New York and then met WEST in the 1980’s there, where he educated me about what was going on in that scene at the time. Robert Rauschenberg, whose philosophy was rooted in the Duchamp school, was also an early influence.

YOUR WORK OFTEN EXPLORES POWER STRUCTURES AND SOCIAL REALITIES. HOW DO YOU SEE THE ROLE OF ART TODAY IN SHAPING AWARENESS OR SPARKING CHANGE?

I see art as an essential and perhaps even the last remaining tool for freedom of free speech able to challenge the mind and critical thinking all at once. We as painters are going up against a new type of colonization and information dissemination that will make individual thought challenging in the near future. Art has always been a threat to authoritarian forces because it challenges people by using subtle grey areas of the brain, not just black and white.

YOU’VE ALWAYS BALANCED ABSTRACTION WITH FIGURATION IN SUCH A UNIQUE WAY. HOW DID THAT VISUAL VOCABULARY EVOLVE FOR YOU?

Looking at my personal history of influences over the last four decades of making art in countries and locations where I was able to borrow elements that I liked and reject those I did not I felt that the morphing of directions is much like life itself, where you are never in one particular state, but manoeuvring between different senses. I always want to challenge the rigid academic norms that are part of our given power structures in the world we live in.

YOU RECENTLY CREATED A PIECE ON ONE OF 4BYSIX’S UPCYCLED TARPAULIN CANVASES. WHAT WAS THAT EXPERIENCE LIKE, AND DID THE SURFACE ITSELF INFLUENCE HOW YOU WORKED OR WHAT YOU WANTED TO SAY?

A part of my practice is using what I have, whether that means limited paint color choices or the material that happens to be around. So in this case, doing the commission for 4BYSIX was not different, and I was excited to see what you would send me. I see any surface or materials as a challenge to find something new that happens, as I did here. I can work with anything.

AT 4BYSIX, WE TURN WASTE MATERIALS INTO CANVASES THAT ARTISTS TRANSFORM INTO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL. WHAT DREW YOU TO COLLABORATE WITH US AND TO THIS KIND OF SUSTAINABLE ART MODEL?

The charity aspect drew me the most and helping the homeless. This is always a soft spot for me, as my own foundation fund in the United States has a similar mission at MarcusJansenFoundation.org. We assist people with mental health issues and the arts, including those that have experienced homelessness. So when you contacted me, it was not hard to be excited.

DO YOU THINK SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ARE BECOMING MORE IMPORTANT IN THE ART WORLD, OR DO WE STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO?

I think we have a long way to go. We live in a first-world country where few boundaries exist regarding waste. I think organisations like yours and others that are aware of this can make a difference globally and enlighten people to think with a more collective focus rather than Individually. I think very accomplished artists should feel encouraged to open a foundation fund to give back to their community or bring awareness in a society that takes more than it gives.

YOUR PAINTINGS OFTEN FEEL LIKE LAYERED LANDSCAPES OF MEMORY, POLITICS AND EMOTION. WHAT DRIVES YOU KEEP EXPLORING THOSE THEMES?

It’s a combination of my personal history, artistic vision and of course, the economic and social threats that face us. For me they are all personal and I have a direct link of experience to each one. I hope my work serves as a potent response to what we inherited from the 20th-century visual history where landscapes and portraiture were often used to project Western power. My works deconstruct those landscapes and portraits to question colonial powers, which I feel is necessary in today’s changing geopolitical environment. I feel that images of the past are no longer in touch with the realities of our current experiences or senses.

WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT YOUR JOURNEY FROM GRAFFITI ROOTS TO INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITIONS, WHAT MOMENTS STAND OUT AS TURNING POINTS IN YOUR CAREER?

There were so many touchstones over the last few decades. Each was crucial to my next show or exhibition to reach more people tuning in, and that never stops. But other factors include the hardships we endure as artists coming up in a craft or practice that millions of others are working in and rejection is commonplace. My military history was a game-changer; it made me critical and changed the way I saw the world and politics. So I would say that influenced how and maybe in part why I paint today, because it allowed me to make some sense out of my own history and then ultimately share it with the world.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU? ARE THERE ANY UPCOMING PROJECTS, EXHIBITIONS OR THEMES YOU’RE PARTICULARLY EXCITED ABOUT EXPLORING?

I have had a very rewarding and pretty hectic five years since 2020 when the pandemic hit. My first U.S. solo museum show at the Rollins Museum of Art, in Florida, debuted that year, followed by a second museum solo show at the Baker Museum, in Naples, and 11 sold-out shows with my gallery representation during that time. My recent show in Sweden at CF Hill at the Arme Museum, which was mentioned in ICON magazine, where we had some great larger pieces that were just placed at the AMOCA Museum, in Wales, was highlighted in The Guardian a few months ago.

My current focus will be on institutional appearances with my work. The next showing is at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, in Florida, in November as part of their latest permanent collection acquisition, and I will be doing more charity foundation work. I am also working with Fundacion Sonrisas in Central America, and have a first 3/3 Print exhibition tied to a fundraiser for our MarcusJansenFoundation.org where I am collaborating with SMITH CONTEMPORARY, in New Orleans from November 1 through 29. Exhibitions — SMITH contemporary

The works there will be drawn from images over the last two decades and curated by Terrence Sanders, who I have known for many years since appearing on his cover of Art Voices magazine. My latest work is a series on paper titled “Decolonize”, in which the works intend to deconstruct or strip the image of colonizers on horses into corroding provocative abstractions.

AND FINALLY, HOW’S LIFE TREATING YOU RIGHT NOW? WHAT’S BEEN GROUNDING OR INSPIRING YOU OUTSIDE OF THE STUDIO LATELY?

I am alive and grateful for who and what I have in my life. I am more concerned about how life is treating others during this very turbulent global crisis, for many younger artists in particular that I personally know. I think it’s important that artists and the art community build alliances and support one another, especially during these very uncertain political and economical times.