About the artist
Theo Jansen studied Physics at Delft University of Technology. He has exhibited in many leading art institutions around the world, including: Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany (2019); National Museum of Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci, Milan, Italy (2019); Fundación Mar Adentro, Santiago, Chili (2018); San Francisco Exploratorium, USA (2016); Tamagawa Ennichi, Tokyo, Japan (2015); and Palais de Tokyo, France (2015).
He gives lectures about his work worldwide. In The Netherlands he has presented his animals in and around leading art institutions, and has given demonstrations on the beach at Scheveningen. Jansen lives and works in The Hague. The computer program that Theo Jansen developed for his beach animals in 1991 became internationally famous.
In 2016, NASA invited him to a think-tank about designing autonomous engines for future space missions to Venus. Jansen has many admirers worldwide, who use the unique mechanics of his work as a starting point for the development of fundamental ideas in the fields of science and arts.
Theo Jansen has received numerous awards for his work including: the Barnett & Annalee Newman Foundation Award (granted by artist Frank Stella) in 2016; the Brilliant Artist of the Year 2017; Artist of the Year 2018; The Hague Culture Prize (2018); and the Pierre Giannadda Prix de la Fondation at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2019).