Ann Veronica Janssens
Ann Veronica Janssens was born in 1956 in Folkestone, England. She studied at L’École de la Cambre in Brussels. The artist lives and works in Brussels.
Janssens’ work foregrounds the body’s perception of the world and itself in it. She often uses light, natural optical phenomena or glass as a medium. Produced with great care, her works exude the impression of great simplicity yet create vivid experiences of the act of seeing, evoking a heightened awareness of the changeability and fleetingness of the individual perception. Her contribution to the 48th Venice Biennale (1999), where she represented Belgium with Michel François filled the space with thick mist that served to disorient the viewers. In 2013, she added colorful glass monoliths to the windows of the Chapelle Saint-Vincent de Grignan in Provence, transforming the interior space into a constantly changing color environment.
Among her numerous solo exhibitions are: pinkyellowblue, M Woods Museum, Beijing (2023); Grand Bal, Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan (2023); Entre le crépuscule et le ciel, Collection Lambert, Avignon (2022); 5766 chemin des Trious, Fondation CAB, Saint-Paul-de-Vence (2022); gam gam gam, Galleria d'Arte Moderna – GAM, Milan (2021); Hot Pink Turquoise, South London Gallery, London (2020–21) and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2020); Green, Yellow and Pink (as part of CONNECT, BTS), Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP), Seoul (2020); Contrepoint 2, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris (2019); Ann Veronica Janssens, De Pont Museum, Tilburg (2018–19); Ann Veronica Janssens, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2018–19); Albedo (with Jean Gilbert), MAC's, Grand Hornu (2018); Fog Star, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore (2018); Naissances latentes, SHED, Notre-Dame-de-Bondeville, L’Aître Saint-Maclou and Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen (2017); mars, IAC, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes (2017); Ann Veronica Janssens, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas (2016); Ann Veronica Janssens: yellowbluepink, Wellcome Collection, London (2015); Philaetchouri (in collaboration with Michel François), La Verrière, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Brussels (2015); Ann Veronica Janssens: Septembre, FRAC Corse, Corte (2013); Ulysses – Ellipse, Église Sainte-Honorat des Alyscamps, Arles (2013); Serendipity, WIELS, Brussels (2009); Ann Veronica Janssens – An den Frühling, Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2007); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts (2003); Rouge 106, Bleu 132, Musée d’Orsay, Paris (2003); and Light Games, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (2001).
Selected group exhibitions include: Cloudwalker, Voorlinden, Den Haag (2024); A Leap into the Void. Art Beyond Matter, GAMeC, Bergamo (2023); Fata Morgana, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2022); La Couleur crue, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, Rennes (2021); Chagall. Le passeur de lumière, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz (2021); Time is Thirsty, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2019); Hidden Beauty, Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nuremberg (2019); Convex/Concave: Belgian Contemporary Art, Tank, Shanghai (2019); Luogo e Segni, Punta della Dogana, Venice (2019); Space Shifters, Hayward Gallery, London (2018); Intuition, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2017); What is visible is not invisible, Song Eun Art Space, Seoul (2017); Poïpoï, une Collection Privée à Monaco, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco (2017); Dizziness. Navigating the Unknown, CCA Warsaw (2017), Kunsthaus Graz (2017); The Absent Museum, WIELS, Brussels (2017); Daniel Buren – A fresco, BOZAR – Centre for fine Arts Brussels (2016); Illumination, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2016); Zehn Räume, drei Loggien und ein Saal, Sprengel Museum, Hannover (2015); Manifesta 10, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2014); Constellations, FRAC Nord-Pas de Calais, Dunkerque (2014); Des choses en moins, des choses en plus, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2014); Before The Horizon, Fundació Juan Miró, Barcelona (2013); Museum to Scale 1/7, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels (2013), travelled to Kunsthalle Rotterdam, Rotterdam and Baker Museum, Naples (both 2014); Dynamo, Un siècle de lumière et de mouvement dans l’art 1913-2013, Grand Palais, Paris (2013); Fruits de la Passion, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2012); Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London (2012), travelled to Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland (2014), Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2015), and Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2015).
Janssens's work is held in the collections of Caldic Collection – Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; De Pont Museum, Tilburg; Institut d'art contemporain Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes; FNAC, Paris; Les Abattoirs – FRAC Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse; FRAC Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Dunkerque; 49 Nord 6 Est – FRAC Lorraine, Metz; FRAC Aquitaine, Bordeaux; FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon; FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou; FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier; FRAC Corse, Corte; FRAC Franche-Comté, Besançon; Fundación Jumex, Mexico City; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; mac, Marseille; Mona – Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania; MUHKA, Antwerp; Musée national d'art moderne – Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels; Museu Coleçao Berardo, Lisbon; Mu.ZEE, Oostende; Musée des Arts Contemporains – Grand Hornu; Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas; S.M.A.K., Gent; Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv.