Short biographical art notes about this non-conventional artist.​
​
Jan Windus is a professional artist and was born in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) in 1946. He lived in Weesp (a small medieval town bordering Amsterdam) during his formative years. He had his art education in Amsterdam and lived also as an art director in Haarlem for two years. He had two exhibitions by the age of 19 in The Netherlands and around that same time represented his country in an international student exhibition at the New York Hilton.
​
In 1969 he had an exhibition in the Anne Frank House, which operated downstairs as an International Youth Centre Gallery.
​
Arrived in Sydney in 1969 and befriended the Irish artist Phillip Martin on the way, who after a distinguished career as a Post Modernist artist in Europe was also looking for a new horizon. Jan participated directly in some group shows that same year, including at the legendary Central Street Gallery.
​
He met Martin Sharp and George Gittoes in 1970, with as a result his participation in the Yellow House project in Sydney. Won the British Tourist Authority poster/art prize that same year, which gave him the privilege of being the guest of the Lord Mayor of London, as well of Roy Strong (director of the National Portrait Gallery in London) and Ronald Penrose (biographer of Pablo Picasso).
​
On his return he shared an exhibition at the West Street Gallery with the internationally well known Dutch Cobra Group artist Karel Appel. In 1973 he had an exhibition at the University of Sydney and two years later with the American artist Sam Middleton in Amsterdam, after being introduced by Kym Bonython at whose gallery Jan had participated in a group show.
​
Back in Sydney, he became a member of the Liverpool+1 art group, which resulted in him participating in an exhibition at the Toorak Gallery in Melbourne. In 1978 he had an exhibition at the Hogarth Gallery in Sydney, with the legendary Clive Evatt as director.
​
Jan lived in Melbourne from 1981 for about three years, where he had two exhibitions. Back in Sydney he moved into an art studio complex and befriended Garry Shead, who also had a studio there. Around that time Jan’s work started to become more lyrical with the Australian landscape as its major subject.
Since then there have been many exhibitions, mainly in Sydney. Including the Gates Gallery, Sydney Hilton, Cooks Hill Gallery in Newcastle, the Ensemble Theatre, Mary Place Gallery, The Bowral Art Society Gallery and a few more. He also participated in many group shows such as The Rembrandt Connection in Melbourne.
​
Jan was a winner of the Mosman Centenary Drawing prize in 1993 and of the National Walkom Manning prize in 2003. He was invited to be on the judging panel of the first ever Cricket Art Prize, which included the art critic John Mc.Donald, in 2009.
Around that time Jan became a part time art tutor at a variety of colleges and in 2015 started to work on a series of paintings called Nature and Imagination, which resulted in an exhibition at the Rex Livingston Gallery in 2018.
​
In 2020 an art book about his new series of smaller paintings was published called “Regardless”, some of those images you can also find on this website. He was invited to show a selection of these paintings at the Hunter Valley Sculpture Festival in 2022 and at the moment is completing an exhibition for 2023 - however because of unforeseen circumstances, no details are yet available.
​
His work is represented in corporate collections in Sydney, Amsterdam, London and Brunei, and private ones in Amsterdam, Sydney, Connecticut, Melbourne, Newcastle and Singapore.