The Janis Project, its name taken from the two-faced Roman god Janus, is a work of sculpture that consists of a number of inflatable heads. The piece resembles an oversized childhood toy that is filled with air but it carries a serious message. Each Janis figure is two-faced with two distinct “skin” colors. In Janis, the viewer observes that we come in different color skins but are all on equal footing. All the Janis figures are wearing face paint, a reference to a global human truth—humans paint their faces to appear “better” or to mask their true selves. Janis is street art appearing in a wide variety of locales, indoor and out, a form one did not expect but finds amusing. And like the circus of old, it travels.
Spanning decades, Frank Hyder’s work embraces multiple disciplines—painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, and more. Hyder has participated in more than 150 group shows and has had over 80 solo exhibitions throughout North, South, and Central America. He has been one of the few North Americans to have solo museum exhibitions in Venezuela at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber (MACCSI), Museo Jacobo Borges, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Zulia (MACZUL), Museo Universidad de Los Andes and Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Coro. Other solo museum exhibitions include the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s Museum of American Art, the Carnegie Museum in California, the La Salle Museum of Art in Philadelphia, and the National Museum of Catholic Art and History in New York. His work has been collected by MACCSI, Museum Jacobo Borges, MACZUL, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ontario Museum of Art, Grand Rapids Museum of Art, Woodmere Museum, La Salle Museum, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Library of Congress and by numerous corporate and private collectors.