Jan Van Woensel is an independent curator and art critic who lives and works between Belgium, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. He is the founder and director of зараз Ukraine: platform for emerging artists. Van Woensel is guest curator at B7 artspace in Mechelen, Belgium; curator of international exhibitions at University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, CZ; and international guest professor at Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Art, KSADA, Kharkiv, UA.
In 2022, Van Woensel founded the independent organization зараз Ukraine: platform for emerging artists. With зараз Ukraine, he organized residence programs for Ukrainian artists in Prague and Pilsen, Czech Republic; Košice, Slovakia; and Mechelen, Belgium. In 2024, he curated a series of exhibitions, titled Crisis of imagination, at B7 artspace, in Mechelen, Belgium. In 2025, he organized the first edition of MAMA art festival with humanitarian missions at FAB181 in Antwerp, Belgium, which raised funds for NGO Feel Home – Ukrainian volunteers in Belgium. Currently, he is preparing the bilateral Flemish-Ukrainian group exhibition (post-)System: painting and photography on the boundary of control for Mala gallery, Laboratory of Contemporary Art at Mystetskyi Arsenal in Kyiv (2025), and for Municipal Art Center in Lviv, Ukraine (2026). At the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Art, KSADA, he leads the curatorial masterclass W(a)R, Writing (as) Resistance, which re-actualizes the 1921 publication “Occupied City” by the Antwerpian poet Paul Van Ostayen.
With зараз Ukraine, curator Jan Van Woensel conducts in-person studio visits with emerging artists from Ukraine in cities, such as: Uzhhorod, Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Izium, Kramatorsk, and Odesa.
From 2003, Van Woensel held curatorial and academic positions at Sint Lucas (Antwerp, Belgium), HISK, Higher Institute of Fine Arts (Antwerp and Ghent, Belgium), Cultural Center and Academy Mechelen (Mechelen, Belgium), and Menen Museum (Menen, Belgium); de Brakke Grond Flemish Cultural Center, and de Appel Curators Training Program (Amsterdam, The Netherlands); New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, The Armory Show, ISCP International Studio and Curator’s Program, Art in General, Bloomberg Gallery, Envoy Gallery, Angel Orensanz Foundation, and Chelsea Art Museum (New York City, USA); NADA New Art Dealers Alliance, and NADA Art Fair at Art Basel Miami Beach (Miami, USA); O.s College of Art and Design (Los Angeles, USA); California College of the Arts (San Francisco, USA); Iceland University of the Arts (Reykjavik, Iceland); IASPIS (Stockholm, Sweden); Grimmuseum, and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, Germany); OFF International Photography Festival (Bratislava, Slovakia); Nova Sín gallery, and DOX+ Center for Contemporary Art (Prague, Czech Republic), University of West Bohemia, LSG gallery, and Municipal Art Gallery (Pilsen, Czech Republic); and Duolun MoMA (Shanghai, China).
