Wim Wauman (°1976, lives and works in Sint-Niklaas, BE), the spiritual father and founder of Blauwhaus, is a multifaceted visual artist, art educator and author. He studied photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the Higher Institute of Fine Arts (HISK), and has been exhibiting his works since 2000. About ten years ago, Wauman started photographing still life compositions, often inspired by a challenging concept or enigmatic narrative. His photographs were acquired by several museums and collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the FOMU (FotoMuseum) in Antwerp. He has published four books on his works and (curatorial) projects: Paraphernalia (2013), False Friends (2015), WORK FLOW / A Play with Arts Apes and Crafts (2018) and (Blauwhaus) GetijdenBoek/Book of Tides (2019).

In December 2019 Wim Wauman concluded his research project Making Waves: A Play with Arts and Crafts on the notions of ‘arts’ and ‘crafts’ (and the apparent opposition between ‘making’ and ‘thinking’), and was granted a ‘PhD in arts’ degree from the Antwerp University. Influenced by his research , he began making unique objects including personalized tables, chairs and cabinets, geometric ‘intarsia’ pieces (meticulously composed from fine wood veneer) and (site-specific) interventions or installations. Some of these works are in private and public collections such as the Flemish Parliamant Collection (Brussels) and the Collection Flemish Community (M HKA, Antwerp).

Since 2021 the artist pursues yet another divergent path involving writing (mainly in Dutch) and publishing. Wauman recently was a (short term) writer-in-residence at the Huis van de Dichter (Watou, 2021) en Het Lijsternest/Streuvelshuis (Ingooigem, 2022).