I am an interdisciplinary artist, combining art-making (mostly photo-based) with community organizing. My interests include the ways in which we use space, literacies, and de-segregating “outsider artists” and MFA artists. My art projects are layered and involve research and creating & sharing spatial pockets outside and within existing structures - in order to rest, reflect, facilitate interactions and bring about action.

I've spoken about my work at the Open Engament conferences, the Homework conference (organized by Broken City Lab) as well as on NPR (The Leonard Lopate show.) Among the places, I've exhibited my work are: Denise Bibro Gallery, Flux Factory, New York Center for Book Arts, A.I.R. Gallery, MCLA Gallery 51, ROCA, Edward Hopper House, Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning and Tina B. Contemporary (Prague.) With Katherine Newbegin, I started the Hunter Photo Collective, and I am an early member of the tART Collective. When I participated in a pilot program for artist residencies at Arts@Renaissance, I combined the residency with offering a literacy service.

I hold an MFA in Visual Arts from Hunter College in New York, NY, and an MA in International Relations from University of Chicago, IL. At Hunter College, I was awarded a Luetz/Riedel Fellowship for exchange studies at the Slade, London. I have received funding from Manhattan Cultural Arts Fund, Queens Arts Council and Norddjurs Kommune (Denmark.) My work is in the collection of Candida Höfer and Edward Hopper House, Nyack, NY.

In 2013, the Romare Bearden foundation chose me to be one of 100 artists to pick and discuss a work of his for the Bearden Centennial; I will do my first art project in the place where I grew up, Denmark, and, in November, I will present a research paper in connection with my art projects - at the Negotiating Points of Encounter conference, organized by National Women’s Study Association.

At this conference, Negotiating Points of Encounter, I will present a paper, Multiplicities of Gender, that integrates recent work, and participate in a panel discussion.

My project exhibition Fjellerup i Bund & Grund is supported by Norddjurs Kommune and Fjellerup Kraemmerforening. Participants: Norbert Francis Attard, Julia Whitney Barnes, Monica Carrier, Jo Q. Nelson and Christine Sciulli.

Along with 10 other artists, I received a SAW commission to make work in one of the few Brooklyn neighborhoods, that are mostly off the map in terms of contemporary art.

As part of the Bearden 100, a centennial tribute, I chose his work, "Imaginary Garden, Tribute to Marianne Moore."

tART@Fountain, curated by Krista Saunders

January 18th - March 30th, 2013: "Brother, Can You Spare a Stack," curated by Yulia Tikhanova, The Center for Book Arts, New York, NY. I am showing a collaboration with Michael Wilson, "A Hard Read, the Personal Library."

December 6th - 9th, 2012: I'm presenting tART Reading Salon, curated by Antidote, at Verge, Art Miami Beach, FL

For this group exhibition, I am showing a recent series of photographs inspired by Paul Bowles and his hometown of Jamaica, Queens.

The Synthetic Zero events are a series of art events focusing on high quality experimental and contemporary work in different media. We don't typically specify a theme in advance for each event but instead work with ideas that emerge from the interaction between the submitted work and curatorial interests. By working this way, the events reflect back the dialogue and practice of artists involved and create evocative encounters for the audience.

review of my work by Vanessa Gualdron:

Once you nearly complete your round around the space, you come across Anna Lise Jensen’s pieces. A combination of photographs taken in Jamaica, Queens coupled with excerpts of Paul Bowles, a Jamaica native, writing from his time spent in Tangiers. Jensen’s pieces were an inspiring way to end the show. While the other artists provided the public with the different realities of homelessness, she offers ways to deal with urban abandonment and displacement; focusing specifically on Jamaica. By keeping her proposal on a local level, I think Jensen instilled a feeling of community and alliance, a feeling you should walk away with.

I've been awarded one of three studio residencies as part of a pilot program at Arts@Renaissance in Greenpoint, Brooklyn - situated in a former hospital.

Benefit on December 20, 2011

Representing tART Collective, with Petra Valentova and Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow, I'm showing Wall Archive for A Lot. I am also giving a lecture at Brno University of Technology and talking to the feminist Czech collective FEMA.

I will present on my work to desegregate "outsider artists" and MFAs within the framework of artist run infrastructures.

I am presenting on tART Collective in relation to concepts of support structures, with Julia Whitney Barnes.

On panel with Jo Q. Nelson, Ted Purves, Matthew Rana, Rachel Hardesty, Jackie Davis and Sarah Biscarra, discussing Ethical Implications of Social Art.

I am both a guest and host for this inaugural, presenting "Visit #23"

I've been awarded a grant from Manhattan Community Art Fund (distributed by Lower Manhattan Cultural Council) for my art project in community gardens.