Janni Mai Larsen

My primary mediums are paintings and drawings and I work in an explorative, narrative universe.
Thematically, I work with an inverted Nature. I often move between the contrasts light/darkness, growth/decay, pretty/ugly to explore the tensions, what is possible and impossible – also in my choice of technique, paint and execution.
Nature, social criticism, science, psychology, magic, spirituality, the uncanny and our shared psyche are my main inspirations. Jean Paul Sartre and Umberto Eco are amongst my recent philosophical inspirations.
My artworks often show the parallels between the inner and outer world and contain metaphors, symbols and mystique, e.g. empty, derelict houses that represents elements from the human subconscious.
I aim to raise a curiosity where aesthetics is in dialogue with the ugly. At first glimpse you see a colourful, optimistic landscape, but at closer inspection you discover magical, strange and uncanny elements hidden in the landscape: Things are not what they appear to be – in utopia the dystopian darkness lurks.
I also have a social-critical view on the world we live in. Climate change caused by large-scale industry, CO2 emissions, over-consumption and the use of GMO, antibiotics, growth promoting hormones etc. and their effects on nature is a theme in much of my work. I explore how humans affect, change, destroy and create a new form of wild nature.

Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your daily routine when working?

It always take a bit of time from conception to action. I usually walk around for a while and piece ideas together in my head when I initiate a new series. Moods and fragments from both inner and outer worlds can come from a sentence, a book title, a scene from a movie, a free magazine, a childhood memory - in that manner I construct a visual scenario in my own mind before I start creating. 
When I start a new series, I love to clean my studio and buy fresh paint and brushes. I prep it and get it ready to get trashed and used again. It’s like a cycle. I love the contrasts and like it to be dirty which also gives me freedom to create my works. I think I have a controlled mess - and I have this pretty bad habit of not screwing the caps back on the paint tubes, but instead of getting annoyed over this I’ve now chosen to accept it. 
I always start the day with a really nice cup of filter coffee and often take an early morning walk, because I have a huge natural preserve right outside my home, as I already have a plan in my head for what I am to do. I work best in daylight so during winter I get the most out of the bright hours mid-day. I mostly work wet-on-wet to begin with. I work in many layers and details and each piece takes a long time to complete. Form and content are equally important to me. My form and the expression varies and I explore different figurative expressions. A tight expression comes naturally to me, but I am practising loosening up as I want a more loose expression. 

What is the essential element in your art?

Thematically I always work with nature in one way or another so naure is always in the centre. Different, crooked, mysterious growths are always present. There are no people present in the locations that can both be based on my imagination and reality. I am interested in creating a mood of loneliness, abandonment, mystery and draw in the onlooker who doesn’t quite know where they are - somewhere between two worlds, utopia or dystopia. 

In your opinion, what role does the artist have in society?

Artists have several roles in the society. Artists are truthtellers of sorts and society needs that. Artists often raise pertinent questions to the world and times we live in. Artists can with their works open new perspectives to problems or the way we view the world. Artists often have the skill to view things dfferently and see new possibilities and solutions outside the conventional approach. Artists can also create learning and enlightenment, new thinking from a new perspective. In my opinion more artists should be employed both in the public and private sector as sparring partners with a fresh approach. 

Could you tell us a little more about your background and how you began creating art?

i am an artist educated from Funen Art Academy and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. I live and work in Copenhagen Denmark

I grew up in the 1980’s in an ordinary worker family in the countryside of Lolland, far away from the city lights. Since I was a child I have always been very creative and full of imagination. Behind my childhood home there were fields and large, green areas where I played, built hide-outs and often pretended I was in a fairy-tale world without borders between reality and imagination. My childhood universe has for sure shaped my art and I still draw threats back to the universe in the large wilderness in our back garden. 

What does your art aim to say to its viewers? 

My primary media are painting and drawing. In my art practice I work in an exploratory manner in a figurative narrative universe. I often move between light/dark, decay/growth, life/death, aesthetic/ugly which permeates the mood and themes in my work.  In this field of tension I explore what is possible and not possible. I am interested in and inspired by nature, social criticism, natural science, psychology – the human psyche and spirituality – and different philosophical and esoterical movements. 

I want to create wonder and, in that way, draw the onlooker into my universe. In my works, I attempt to create curiosity. At first glance you often meet a colourful and optimistic landscape, but up close you discover the strange and unsettling growths hiding throughout. Things are not what they seem to be. In the lonely and dystopic landscape, where everything is strange and unpredictable, there are still glimpses of light and growth from above and underneath, but the darkness lurks.

Instagram: HTTP://Instagram.com/janni_mai