Janie Samuels was born in Canandaigua, NY in 1959. She received her BA from Bennington College, Vermont, in 1981 after having returned from studying a year in Southern France. She returned to France to live and paint for another year, returning to New York City in 1983. She received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, in 1986. From 1989 to 1994, she designed and built the sets and co-produced several plays written by her husband and two other playwrights Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway.

She had worked as Nancy Graves’s assistant from 1988 to 1994 at which time Nancy passed away from ovarian cancer. Janie chose to stay at the studio as its director until late 1996 when the Nancy Graves Foundation was established. She continued at the foundation until March 1999 when she was offered a position as Chuck Close’s Studio Manager. In 2006 she resigned her position to work full time on her own art career.

She has had three solo exhibitions, the most recent at Monster Gallery in Broo
klyn in 2005. Her next solo exhibition will be held from March 27 thru April 19th, 2009 at Artspace in Richmond, Virginia. She has additional solo exhibitions planned for 2010, but yet to be confirmed.

She has been in over 40 group exhibitions in the United States and Southern France.