Michiel Jansen (1973) is a dutch artist, based in Oslo. He graduated in 2000 at the academy for arts and design in Den Bosch (NL). He exhibits mainly in Europe in galleries and independent art spaces. His work can be found in private collections and collections of cultural institutions. Next to his artistic activities, he has always been active in organizing and producing cultural events. He was part of Temporary Art Centre in Eindhoven and the Dutch Cacaofactory in Helmond, both artist run initiatives. We he moved from Eindhoven to Rotterdam he founded the SingerSweatShop, a cultural building in the centre of Rotterdam where people could live, work and exhibit. In 2013 he moved to Berlin for a short period and after his return to Rotterdam in 2014 he focused mainly on his own artistic career. Since is move to Norway in 2018 he has had exhibitions at Norsk Billedhoggerforening, Galleri TM51 and Kunsthal Oslo. He’s also a member of the IPIHAN collective since 2016. At this moment he’s working to get his own exhibition space off the ground in Oslo.

My current practice can be divided in site specific and studio works. In both cases my approach is that of a researcher, looking for alternatives in the experience of space and the use material. With this I aim to show alternatives to see our current living environment and ultimatly our view on reality.

In site specific works I search for an alternative reality, or for a sculpture which is already present, but not yet seen or visible. The studio works are based on memories of spaces and shapes, fit into either almost flat, wall based works, or sculptures with no direct relation to their environment. The forms and spaces come into existence while experimenting with different materials and their characteristics. These differ from their standard, factory shapes and dimensions, to color, thickness, flexibility, structure and adherence. 

Given architecture as our contemporary habitat, all the works relate to this, from shape to material. How we relate to our environment defines our identity. So changing this and give alternatives or different arrangements or orders, will change our perspective and ways of seeing. So also our way of being?

This new environment and identity really relates to myself and practice and personal life are intertwining. The shift from a busy, energitic, human filled urban environment, to a more quiet, lonesome natural environment is changing me as a person and I value these natural places as never before. My goal now is to research them by trying to understand it, as I also tryed to undersand urban environments. With this understanding I have to place myself in the middle of it, or be surrounded by it and look at my reaction to it. These works will start as a performative action, which lead into interventions and installations. I also feel ready to take the natural environment into my studio and continue working on it there, so nature will invade urban reality, as it once did the other way around.