About
CFHILL, in association with Almine Rech Gallery and Marcus Jansen Foundation, presents Faceless, the first solo exhibition by Marcus Jansen in Stockholm. The exhibition brings together new and previously unseen works that merge gestural abstraction, surreal storytelling, and raw urban energy.
Born in 1968 in New York City to a Jamaican mother and German father, Jansen grew up between the Bronx and Queens, New York and later Mönchengladbach, Germany. Moving between these two environments, he developed an acute awareness of power structures, exclusion, and identity—experiences that continue to shape his work. His early exposure to street art and graffiti in New York became a foundation for his artistic language, merging spontaneous expression with sharp social critique.
Jansen’s paintings are layered with explosive color, architectural compositions, and haunting figures, creating visual narratives that explore the intersections of history, power, and human connection. His work engages with themes of colonialism, capitalism, and the unseen forces that structure contemporary life. Each canvas is a site of tension, where the personal and the political merge, challenging the viewer to question systems of control, representation, and memory.
"It’s almost impossible to feel human suffering due to the fictions, labels, and entities channeled through the traces of colonialism, including but not limited to man-made race, economics, and religious power structures through which we filter our human emotions first. Painting allows me to feel indiscriminately of these power structures without any of those obstacles in the way.” Marcus Jansen.
Influenced by pre-war German Abstract Expressionism and the authenticity of street art, Jansen moves fluidly between the figurative and abstract. His paintings examine what is revealed and what remains obscured, creating a dialogue of past and present. Faceless invites reflection on the visible and invisible structures that shape the world today.
