COASTE | ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Jansen’s artistic career began at the age of six, when his painting of a lion was selected from a student competition to appear in an exhibit at the Lever House in Manhattan. Something of a world traveler with a German father and West Indies mother, Jansen returned to New York in his teens and was immediately drawn to the graffiti art movement of the 80s when he met celebrated graffiti artist WEST ONE. He served in the first Gulf War in the Airborne Units in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, before it was back to Europe — then back to the U.S. permanently in 1999 where, in New York City, he sold his art on the streets.
who were living here. “We loved the area, we loved the beaches and we were attracted to it all immediately,” he recalls. He works out of Unit A Studio in downtown Fort Myers, and is a regular stop on the monthly Art Walk event (read more about Art Walk later in this issue). According to Jansen, things really began “happening” for him in 2007, when his work appeared at the Art Basel Festival in Miami, one of the world’s top modern and contemporary art showswhere approximately 300 artists and galleries from around the world exhibit. “That’s when I was launched if you will on the international scene,” he says, “when I started doing my very large works” that often exceed 10 feet in height or width.
The move to Fort Myers came in 2003, after his first son was born, to be closer to his parents
8
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs