Through his drawings, Jan Rothuizen makes you look at the world differently: he maps reality in a way that is difficult to define. Rothuizen draws and describes his surroundings in ways that are always personal and never fictional.

With his hand-drawn plans he presents his stories in a way that fits surprisingly well with how we process information in the digital age: non-linear and layered. His drawings are both an image and a story; the viewer is free to interpret them in their own way. Even as it is pen on paper, his drawings are a direct result of the information age.

He visits cities, neighbourhoods, squares and houses, and he notes what he sees, thinks, and feels. Those places vary from IKEA showrooms to the red light district and from the bedroom of a soldier who died in Afghanistan to a detention centre for illegal immigrants at Schiphol Airport or even Anne Frank’s secret hiding place.

Jan is known for his books including The Soft Atlas of Amsterdam, for his exhibitions in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and his drawings in the Dutch National Newspaper De Volkskrant. He also drew all the maps in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.