Janet Werner

Lauren (yellow suit)
2021
Oil on canvas
175.5 x 129.5 cm. (69 x 51 in.)

Suite
2020
Oil on canvas
175.5 x 129.5 cm. (69 x 51 in.)

Twister
2020
Oil on canvas
152.5 x 122 cm. (60 x 48 in.)

Plaza (gold room)
2021
Oil on canvas
193 x 152.5 cm. (76 x 60 in.)

Untitled (Paris
2021
Oil on canvas
61 x 51 cm. (24 x 20 in.)

Decoy
2021
Oil on canvas
160 x 129.5 cm. (63 x 51 in.)

There There
2021
Exhibition view
Bradley Ertaskiran, Montreal (Canada), photo: Maxime Brouillet

Dallas
2020
Oil on canvas
61 x 51 cm. (24 x 20 in.)

Gardener
2020
Oil on canvas
51 x 40.5 cm. (20 x 16 in.)

Beast
2019
Oil on canvas
244 x 188 cm. (96 x 74 in.)

Drop
2022
Oil on canvas
51 x 40.6 cm. (20 x 16 in.)

Orange Split
2020
Oil on canvas
83.8 x 66 cm. (33 x 26 in.)

Beacon
2019
Oil on canvas
122 x 91.5 cm. (48 x 36 in.)

Untitled (reach)
2019
Oil on canvas
56 x 73.5 cm. (22 x 29 in.)

Still life
2018
Oil on canvas
61 x 78.5 cm. (24 x 31 in.)

Em
2022
Oil on canvas
51 x 61 cm. (20 x 24 in.)

Sleeper
2016
Oil on canvas
183 x 152.5 cm. (72 x 60 in.)

Sticky Pictures
2017
Oil on canvas
188 x 152.5 cm. (74 x 60 in.)

Hass
2017
Oil on canvas
152.5 x 122 cm. (60 x 48 in.)

Janet Werner
2020
Exhibition view
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal (Canada)

Cliffs
2021
Oil on canvas
137 x 114.5 cm. (54 x 45 in.)

VAR
2020
Oil on canvas
213.5 x 170 cm. (84 x 67 in.)

Pink suit
2020
Oil on canvas
170 x 152.5 cm. (67 x 60 in.)

Biography

Janet Werner’s work as a painter focuses on the fictional portrait as a vehicle to explore notions of subjectivity and desire. Her paintings operate within and against the genre of conventional portraiture, taking found images of anonymous figures in popular culture and imbuing them with fictional personalities. The process of painting is a way of investigating the iconic power of the image, invoking imagination, memory, and projection to invest the nameless figure with human subjectivity and emotion. The final paintings are composite portraits that retain aspects of the original while also embodying notions of transformation, innocence and loss.

Janet Werner (b. 1959, Winnipeg, Manitoba) lives and works in Montreal, Quebec, and holds an MFA from Yale University (New Haven). Notable recent exhibitions include the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal, Almine Rech (Brussels), Kasmin Gallery (New York), Arsenal Contemporary Art (New York), Art Gallery of Guelph (Guelph), Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles), Whatiftheworld Gallery (Cape Town), and Bradley Ertaskiran (Montreal). Her solo survey exhibition Another Perfect Day organized by the Kenderdine Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, toured to five locations across Canada, including the Esker Foundation (Calgary). Werner’s work is in the collection of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal, The Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, University of Lethbridge (Alberta), Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Mendel Art Gallery, and numerous private and corporate collections.

Born in Winnipeg, Canada, 1959

Lives and works in Montreal, Canada