Originally from the Netherlands, Janna Kumi is a Canadian artist living in Metro Vancouver creating intimate and detailed drawings of tree bark in colour pencil on paper and board. The consistency across the work is her emotional response to function, form, and patterns occurring in small, overlooked, and seemingly insignificant components of the natural world, specifically tree bark.
Her initial art studies were at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, but she went on to complete professional degrees in physical geography and forestry at various Canadian universities and in Munich, Germany. Following a successful career in natural resource management in British Columbia, she returned to art and completed a Certificate of Fine Art Techniques at Emily Carr University of Art and Design (2009) and a Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of British Columbia (2015).
Since then, she has built her artistic practice around a unique body of work. She has been awarded two Canada Council for the Arts grants (2019/20 and 2021/22) and attained her Associate Status with the Federation of Canadian Artists in 2021. She has been active with both the North Shore Artist’s Guild (2008 – present) holding various positions on the Board, with the Federation of Canadian Artists (2013 – present), and with the Cityscape Art Rental Program (2018 – present). Janna works mostly on commissions, cherishing the relationship with collectors that she experiences when she meets the collector’s interests.
(top banner image: Both Sides to the Story, detail)