Janpeter Muilwijk

Janpeter Muilwijk (b. 1960, France) lives and works in Middelburg, the Netherlands. Over the course of his artistic career, he has developed a distinctive visual language that explores the human condition, spirituality and the mysteries of existence. Moving between drawing, painting, textile and ceramics, his work seeks to express what lies beyond language and rational thought, opening a space for contemplation, vulnerability and wonder.

At the heart of Muilwijk’s practice is an enduring fascination with the power of images as a means of communication. His works often originate in a phrase, an encounter or a personal experience, which gradually unfolds into an image shaped by intuition and memory. Rather than relying on models or photographic references, he draws upon an inner reservoir of images, allowing figures and compositions to emerge through an intimate and intuitive process.

Drawing occupies a central place in his oeuvre. The delicacy of pencil on paper lends his figures a sense of fragility and tenderness, while successive layers create compositions that remain open to interpretation. For Muilwijk, drawing is not merely a means of representing the visible world, but a way of approaching what cannot easily be articulated: the emotional, spiritual and existential dimensions of human experience.

His practice has continually expanded across different media. An important turning point came with a commission to create a protective mantle for the devotional image of Onze Zoete Lieve Vrouwe in St John’s Cathedral in ’s-Hertogenbosch. This experience revealed how the translation of his imagery into textiles could intensify the softness and tactile presence of his work. His monumental tapestries subsequently became an important part of his artistic language, extending the intimacy of drawing into architectural space. Among these projects is a tapestry measuring over eleven metres in height, created for the Abbey Church in Middelburg and dedicated to the human journey through life.

In recent years, Muilwijk has also explored ceramics, translating the shallow spatial depth of his images into tangible, three-dimensional forms. Whether working on paper, canvas, textile or ceramic relief, his underlying concerns remain consistent. Each medium offers a different way of investigating the human condition and the relationship between the visible and the invisible, the physical and the spiritual.

Intuition has become increasingly fundamental to his working process. Beginning with a subject and a few preliminary compositional sketches, Muilwijk allows the work to develop beyond his initial intentions. The image must ultimately surprise its maker, emerging through a process in which conscious control gradually gives way to receptivity. He describes this approach as listening to an “Inner Source”, a place beyond thought from which the work’s deeper meaning can arise. Through this process, the image becomes more than a constructed representation: it becomes a means of approaching the soul.

This spiritual inquiry was particularly evident in his solo exhibition One Foot in Heaven at James Freeman Gallery in London in 2023, which explored the fluid passage between earthly existence and an eternal state of being. In 2025, he continued this investigation through Boven Natuur at De Vishal in Haarlem, a group exhibition in which five artists approached the realm of the soul from different perspectives.

Muilwijk’s works have been presented at institutions including Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Museum de Fundatie, Museum Krona, Zeeuws Museum, Stedelijk Museum Kampen, Museum W in Weert, Museum de Buitenplaats and the TextielMuseum in Tilburg. His work is also represented in public, corporate and private collections in the Netherlands and internationally.

For Muilwijk, art offers a form of wordless language that can transcend the limitations of everyday discourse and rational explanation. In a world marked by uncertainty and social unrest, he sees the artist’s role as one of attentive observation and inward exploration: to search for images that create breathing space, offer consolation and open new perspectives on existence. Through a practice shaped by intuition, material sensitivity and a lifelong engagement with the spiritual dimension of life, Muilwijk continues to create images that invite viewers to pause, reflect and encounter something beyond the immediately visible.

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