Artist Bio
Jan-Erik Andersson (b. 1954) is an artist whose works are dealing with primary biological, psychological and sociological energies of being human – loving, constructing, communicating, eating, dreaming, playing. Since 1980 he has presented installations, performances, public art works, interactive media works and architecture. In the course of the past one and half decades Andersson has explored the effect of the unexpected by collaborating with other artists and architects, especially with sound artist Shawn Decker from Chicago and architect Erkki Pitkäranta from Helsinki. Since 1991 he has been a member of the performance group Edible Finns.
Andersson’s best known work is the total artwork Life on a Leaf, where he lives with his family. The house, a product of collaboration with Pitkäranta, was the subject for his Doctorate in Visual Arts 2008 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. The project explores the house as a membrane between nature and culture and the potential of art and ornamentation to create ”iconic space”.