Jan Van Schaik

Jan van Schaik is an artist and architect based in Melbourne.

He is the director of MvS Architects, a researcher and senior-lecturer at RMIT Architecture & Urban Design, founder of +Concepts, author of the Lost Tablets artwork series, and the design director of creative sector strategy and advocacy consultancy Future Tense.

Making art about architecture, and vice versa, Jan is engaged in the governance and communities of both. Arising from an interest in the complex relationship between human beings and their environments, Jan’s work explores the cultural and societal elements of architecture, and then expresses intuitive spatial discoveries in the coded geometric and spatial languages of the built environment..

His artworks, and his designs of prototypical public and private buildings have received numerous awards, and been published in Australia and internationally.

Jan is the founder of +Concepts, a presentation and performance series exploring the insights practitioners have into their own creative and cultural practices. It has hosted over 120 performances from Australian and international practitioners in metropolitan and regional venues in Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Western Australia, and the ACT.

Jan’s Lost Tabl...

Jan studied fine at RMIT TAFE before completing a bachelor degree in Architecture in 2004. In 2015 he completed a PhD in creative practice research at RMIT University’s School of Architecture & Design – an area in which he now supervises architects and artists alike.

Jan’s architecture work has been published and exhibited globally since 2008.

The Lost Tablets project was exhibited in 99% Gallery’s General Public group show, Neon Parc’s Domestic Sects group show, and was exhibited in the Charles Nodrum Gallery’s annual abstraction show in 2021. In April 2021 Jan’s work was exhibited as a Sarah Scout Presents Salong Project alongside Dr Christian Thompson’s work in the adjoining galleries.

Between May and November 2021 Lost Tablets were featured in the 17th Venice Biennale of Architecture’s Italian Virtual Pavilion.

In 2023 Lost Tablets had shows booked in with Boom Gallery in Geelong, NAP Contemporary in Mildura, and the Crystal Palace Courtyard in Melbourne.

Recently Jan has been working in collaboration with Olivia Lennon on an invited residency at the L’Escaut project space for the 2024 and 2025 Art Brussels OFF Programme.