Janna Watson is a conceptual painter based in Toronto, Canada. Through her practice, Janna works to reframe spirituality from the dogmatic—which she grew up with—into objects that reflect an embodied spirituality that includes fluidity, agility, and joy. She communicates this through a queering of the painterly process, into one that is diversely applied, gestural, and multi-oriented. Janna intentionally forgoes the use of borders on her paintings to create a sense of the infinite, and the inherent vulnerability of a spirituality that is not contained by a canon.

For Janna, the artistic process and the final work are of equal value. She paints on the ground, without preconceptions of visual direction. According to the artist, this approach eschews the cognitive and emphasizes the spiritual, and is a time in which she can get lost in the space of the painting. Janna likens this process to the practice of speaking in tongues, which she learned during her Pentecostal upbringing. While her spiritual practice now differs, this practice continues to hold resonance to Janna, and has transferred into her distinctive painterly process.

Janna has exhibited internationally for nearly two decades, and her work is part of collections across North America. She is an alumna of OCAD University, and is represented by leading galleries in Canada, the United States, and Asia.