Jana Visser (b. 1997) is a textile artist and designer originally from Stellenbosch, South Africa. In 2019 she completed her Bachelor studies in Fine Art at Stellenbosch University. In 2021 she obtained a Bachelor’s Diploma in Textile Design from LUCA School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium. Most recently, she completed her Master’s in Textile Design, also at LUCA School of Arts for which she received a Magna Cum Laude. Her master's thesis titled, "an emptiness that breathes" was nominated for a Thesis Prize as well as the prestigious Dirk Lauwaert Award.
Visser's work has been exhibited in multiple galleries and institutions in both South Africa and Belgium, including the Design Fest Ghent, and forms part of private collections in South Africa, Belgium and Germany. In October 2022, some of her textile works were on display during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Most recently she has been selected as one of 30 international finalists for the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize 2023.
The artistic process informs the conceptualisation of her practice as she “makes her way into thinking.” Searching for a certain sensibility of direct, intuitive expression, she is captivated by the practice of weaving as both an art-making method and its conceptual capabilities. Her practice is grounded in an openness to uncertainty, as she navigates between controlling method and media, whilst also considering internal and external relationships between matter, time and space. She views this as a vital source of meaning-making, and as a means to explore the viability of sensory perception and embodied experience. Her slow methods of making are an indication of patience in learning; spending enough time with her chosen medium in order to grasp both its material and symbolic potency. There is a desire to know more about the self, the value of rhythm and gesture, and how thread may serve as a conduit through which to access a dimension beyond the tangible.
"Relying on a desire for subtlety, sensitivity, effort and intricacy; my intention is to create spaces of intimate observation and reflection in which layered meanings reveal themselves."