WILLEM VAN ZANTEN

Willem began his career as a journalist. He later became Pacific Regional Director of an international publishing company & started the Dutch art magazine Kunstbeeld in 1980. Having resided in various European countries, he has been involved in many arts’ communities and has been collecting art for over 30yrs.

Willem talked of opening a gallery in New York but fell in love with a hundred acre property, Lavender Gate Farm, in Wollombi and The Gate Gallery & Defiance Sculpture Park opened in 2010.
Intrigued by the rich Aboriginal heritage in the Wollombi area, the Gallery had a significant focus on Australian Indigenous Art, abstract art and outdoor works by prominent & emerging Australian & International sculptors, making this Sculpture Park the first of its kind in Australia. Willem has been obsessed by Art throughout his life, now in retirement he enjoys walking & seeing forms in nature. He finds great satisfaction in ‘preserving dying nature into something functional and useful’ calling himself  ‘Nature’s Little Helper’.