Bernd Jansons Digital Painting

BERND JANSONS

About the artist

Bernd was born in Zeven, Germany in 1948, but he has lived most of his life in Australia, having immigrated with his parents from Europe in 1950. He currently lives in Leura, in the midst of a world heritage park in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. He has degrees in Computer Science and in Arts and, during his life so far, he has been a public servant, a computer programmer, a systems analyst, a manager, a consultant, an academic, an actor, a lighting designer and a theatrical director, among other things. Until recently, he lectured in computer science and interface design at the University of Western Sydney. He now devotes himself full-time to his art and managing the Event Horizon Gallery in Katoomba.

Although being involved in drawing and amateur photography for many years, Bernd turned to digital art at the beginning of 2007. Since then, he has been successful in securing both solo and group exhibitions in the Blue Mountains, Wollongong, Sydney and Melbourne. He has also had works hanging in the forecourt of the NSW Parliament House. He is a member of the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) and the Blue Mountains Artists Company.

The primary focus of Bernd's work is the image itself and its ability to carry meaning through basic elements of form, texture and colour. In earlier work involving visual communication and design, Bernd became aware of the tenuous and arbitrary links between visual stimulus and perception, sign and signified, form and meaning. A keen devotee of Gestalt, he attempts to push an image to the edge of cognition where meaning becomes essentially volatile and totally personal and subjective.

Artist's Statement

Bernd Jansons is a Sydney-based artist working with digital images. In his latest work, he continues his examination of the image.

Art as a visual language. A language where the image is assembled from the picture element … the pixel. Form, texture and colour as pixel constructs. Stimulus and perception. Meaning. The image in its own right … for its own sake … as stimulus … as perceived narrative shifting from moment to moment, from person to person.

The ‘event-horizon’ of a black hole in space is the precise point beyond which light and information cannot escape to the rest of the world. It is the edge of meaning. In his work, Bernd Jansons attempts to take the image to the edge of meaning … to the event-horizon of perception. All meaning is subjective, derived from cognitive processes driven by sensory stimulus. Meaning can be transferred through communication, carried by language where elementary tokens are packed and unpacked according to agreed protocols. Sign and signified become linked momentarily and arbitrarily as perception grapples with stimulus. Relieved of the need to define function, form together with texture and colour are freed to seductively invoke non-functional meaning.

The image, although it may borrow pragmatically and contextually, exists as an artefact and as a vehicle for the transfer of meaning beyond discourse of technique, genre, style, subject, technology, media and everything else outside itself. Bernd's work continues to celebrate the image at the edge … at the event-horizon.

Exhibitions

Chaos Theory, Solo Exhibition, 23/9/07 – 27/10/07, Inn Gallery, BLACKHEATH, NSW

2007 Crockett Group Prize, Group Exhibition, 26/10/07 – 28/10/07, Mountain Heritage Resort, KATOOMBA, NSW

Sublime Elevations, Group Exhibition, 10/11/07 – 16/12/07, Newington Armory Gallery, Sydney Olympic Park, SILVERWATER, NSW

Summer Show, Group Exhibition, 22/11/07 – 31/5/08, Frogmore House, University of Western Sydney, WERRINGTON, NSW

Land and Sea, Group Exhibition, 6/11/07 – 24/11/07, De Havilland Gallery, WOLLONGONG, NSW

Eclectic Christmas, Group Exhibition, 27/11/07 – 22/12/07, De Havilland Gallery, WOLLONGONG, NSW

From Landscape to Mindscape, Group Exhibition, 8/1/08 – 1/2/08, The Fountain Court, NSW Parliament House, SYDNEY, NSW

And Now For Something Completely Different, Solo Exhibition, 1/2/08 – 15/2/08, Archetype Gallery, Liverpool Street, SYDNEY, NSW

But Not As We Know It, Jim, Solo Exhibition, 5/2/08 – 25/2/08, McCulloch Gallery, Rankins Lane, MELBOURNE, VIC

All About the Image, Solo Exhibition, 5/3/08 – 23/3/08, 69 Smith Street, Smith Street, MELBOURNE, VIC

Pixelated Paint, Solo Exhibition, 26/3/08 – 12/4/08, De Havilland Gallery, WOLLONGONG, NSW

Three Aspects, Andrew Johnston, Ron Knott and Bernd Jansons, 6/6/08 – 22/6/08, Braemer Gallery, SPRINGWOOD, NSW

Winter Show, Group Exhibition, 2/7/08 – 20/11/08, Frogmore House, University of Western Sydney, WERRINGTON, NSW

2008 Crockett Group Prize, Group Exhibition, 10/10/08 – 12/10/08, Mountain Heritage Resort, KATOOMBA, NSW

Sublime Elevations, Group Exhibition, 15/11/08 – 25/01/09, Newington Armory Gallery, Sydney Olympic Park, SILVERWATER, NSW

Summer Show, Group Exhibition, 21/11/08 – 27/3/09, Frogmore House, University of Western Sydney, WERRINGTON, NSW

13th International Art Fair, Group Exhibition, 11/12/08 – 15/12/08, Guangzhou, CHINA

Go tell it on the mountain, Solo Exhibition, 4/2/09 – 15/2/09, Event Horizon Gallery, KATOOMBA, NSW

A Little Bit Louder Now, Solo Exhibition, 10/2/09 – 28/2/09, Galerie Gora, Montreal, QUEBEC, CANADA

2009 Prometheus Visual Arts Award, Group Exhibition, 23/5/09 – 27/5/09, The Prometheus Foundation Gallery, MERRIMAC, QLD

The Art of Seeing, Group Exhibition, 5/6/09 – 30/9/09, The Edge Megacinema, KATOOMBA, NSW

Winter Show, Group Exhibition, 20/7/09 – 18/12/09, Frogmore House, University of Western Sydney, WERRINGTON, NSW

2009 Springwood Art Show, Group Exhibition, 28/8/09 – 30/08/09, Springwood High School, SPRINGWOOD, NSW

Works on Loan, Solo Exhibition, 28/8/09 – 30/09/09, Westmead Hospital, WESTMEAD, NSW

2009 Crockett Group Prize, Group Exhibition, 1/10/09 – 1/2/10, The Edge Megacinema, KATOOMBA, NSW

Art with Altitude, Group Exhibition, 21/11/09 – 24/1/10, Newington Amory Gallery, Sydney Olympic Park, SILVERWATER, NSW

Art with Altitude, Group Exhibition, 4/2/10 – 31/5/10, The Edge Megacinema, KATOOMBA, NSW

View Bernd's work on YouTube