Jantje Visscher


Jantje Visscher is an American painter, printmaker, photographer, sculptor, teacher and mentor. Visscher uses geometry and mathematics to explore the dynamics of perception and optical effects through the use of nontraditional mixed media. She is based in Minneapolis, MN and is currently active among the WARM Mentor Program and the Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art. Visscher is best known for hard edge abstraction and minimalism within her scientific approach and exploration of perception and mathematics.

Early life and education

Jantje Visscher obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. She then later earned her M.F.A in Fine Arts, Painting and Printmaking from the University of California Berkeley in 1962. After grad school, Visscher returned to Minnesota to take care of her family. It wasn't until 1973 when Visscher joined the WARM collective in MN, an environment and support that Visscher deeply connected with.

Groups and collectives

WARM (Women's Art Resource of MN)

Visscher is one of the founding members of WARM, a feminist artist collective based in MN. The collective became an important aspect that shaped and reinforced Visscher as an artist. She now serves as a mentor in the WARM Mentor program of which pairs emerging artists with professional artists. Her philosophy as a mentor includes the practice of constant revision of goals and refocusing within daily life and as an artist. She strives to help protegees develop basic career skills like marketing, drawing, and Photoshop that will help them become successful practicing artists. As a mentor, Visscher also help protegees develop their art through philosophical discussion, learning technical skills, creating art on a regular basis and many more. Visscher is a mixed media artist and has been a part of the WARM Mentor Program in 2015-2016, mentoring artist Kate Vinson, and also in 2013-2014, mentoring artist Maryellen Murphy. Visscher has taken part in both final capstone exhibitions for the WARM Mentor Program, accompanied by her fellow protegees. She exhibited her piece, Capital in the final exhibition Landing and Launching in 2016 and exhibited Making Your Wings in the 2014 final exhibition Beyond the Surface.

Traffic Zone Center for Visual Art

Visscher is also one of the founding members of Traffic Zone Center for Visual Arts of which provides high quality and affordable studio spaces for artists. Visscher is still active in this community through the Traffic Zone Art’s 22nd Annual Spring Open Studio that will be happening in May 2017. She’s also had a recent show titled Motion at the Traffic Zone Gallery in January 2017 that runs through the beginning of March 2017. This show features collaged prints that display her fascination with “constant motion of everything in the universe”.

Career

Style

Visscher is fascinated with using various techniques and processes to achieve nonobjective representation. Her style emerged as using geometric principles to create intuitive expression through repetition, limited color palettes and grids. Visscher introduces a shifting relationship between figure and ground as her experimental constructions invites various perceptions and illusions from her viewers. Visscher's work is reminiscent of the natural sciences and architecture. She uses radiating lines to intersect grids, mimicking moire patterns to create dramatic weaving, swirling and swelling forms.
In Beautiful Lie Landscapes, it features diptych photographs of natural landscapes and waves that create an optical illusion when disoriented. Visscher “never gave the subject a thought until she glanced at a photo of a wave a couple of years ago and realized it was upside down but looked right” hence the beginning of her curiosity with orientation and perception. In Dancing In Light exhibition, it references Visscher’s interest in “the idea of using a force of nature and light energy, as a drawing material”.

Work

Selected exhibitions