Biography

A photographer and graphic designer by training, Janna made her first collages in 2017. Cutting out publications of all kinds, she assembled a few hundred works, which quickly gained attention. Her individual collages have been exhibited in Montreal, New York, Maastrich, Toronto.

In 2018, she unveiled Biotopia, her first series inspired by nature and the body. Her research on human evolution and nature led to her Exuvies series where she assembled for the first time new beings made of human organs, snakes and fungi. She then added embroidery interventions and three-dimensional assemblages to her collages. This body of work was exhibited in 2019 at Artch, a pivotal event for the emerging artist’s career, also leading her to exhibit at Ubisoft. In 2022, new work will be exhibited solo at the Revelstoke Visual Arts Center. Janna also combines her passion for art and mental health through volunteering at Les Impatients and her new podcast addressing these themes.

Janna Yotte has made collage her specialty. Botanical books, outdated medical textbooks or the latest fashion magazines pass under her scalpel. She extracts specimens, limbs, organs, various living beings in whole or in part, and reassembles these pieces into improbable but natural sets, where beauty is not altered by the strange. Disproportion, unrealism are tempered by a meticulous cutting and a thematic, chromatic, geometric coherence. The new bodies are contrasting on several levels: they seem fragile, but their presence imposes. They are delicate, refined and at the same time impudent, even disturbing. Their composition raises questions, but we quickly accept and admire them, for it is a privilege to see them reveal themselves to us. These contradictory forces give the works a disarming and reassuring familiarity, just like (human) nature.