Artist Bio
Jenny Johannsen is an abstract artist based in Kansas City, Missouri. Her work explores how the elemental materials of textile, pigment, and water can be layered and manipulated to create pieces that balance fluidity with structure—holding space between precision and release.
As a child, she was constantly painting, rearranging, and redecorating her surroundings, but she also nurtured an interest in psychology and learning. She went on to earn undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology and built a career as a licensed school psychologist. This dual foundation—logic and science on one hand, creativity and curiosity on the other—continues to shape her practice, where she investigates the dialogue between control and spontaneity.
Her creative journey into art came through modern quilting. Teaching herself to sew through books and blogs, she became part of the national modern quilting movement, serving as a founding board member of the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild in 2010, gaining a front-row seat to the national movement that embraced bold color, graphic design, and reinterpretations of tradition. Quilting taught her the magic of textiles, the discipline of precision, and the freedom of improvisation—lessons that continue to shape her work.
Her transition into painting was equally organic. Drawn to the unpredictability of ink, she began experimenting with its fluid nature, gradually developing techniques to guide its flow while leaving room for chance. Over time, she refined a visual language where pigment and line meet in a careful balance of order and surprise.
In her current work, she continues to explore the interplay of paint, fabric, and water—testing how each medium transforms in dialogue with the others. Each piece reflects the ongoing negotiation between mastery and surrender, structure and flow.
