David van Nunen has been President of the Australian Watercolour Institute since 2009 and was a founding executive member of the Painters and Sculptors Association of Australia.  In 2020, David van Nunen was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for service to the visual arts. Born in Grafton, New South Wales, van Nunen graduated from the National Art School in 1974 and subsequently obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts. 

He has been awarded a number of Artist-in-Residencies, notably at the Power Studio, Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; the Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory; Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon Trust property on the Shoalhaven River and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in conjunction with that institution’s 1991 Bohemians in the Bush exhibition, which culminated in his solo exhibition there, David van Nunen: Paintings from the Curlew Camp, Sirius Cove. In 2013, van Nunen was artist-in-residence at the Zendai Himalayas Art Museum, Zhujiajiao, culminating in a solo exhibition there of Chinese ink and watercolour paintings based on his expeditions to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) and Suzhou. 

Since 1974, van Nunen has had 41 solo exhibitions, including the Australian Embassies in Paris, Washington DC and Mexico City, and participated in over 170 group exhibitions in Australia, the United states, France, Italy, England, Scotland, Ireland, Mexico, China, Taiwan, Ireland, Korea and Thailand.

In his tenure as President of the Australian Watercolour Institute, David van Nunen has consolidated strong cultural links with China. A sinophile with a particular interest in Chinese ink painting, he has made numerous trips to China, including as an international guest artist, judge and opening speaker at the Lushan International Watercolour Festival, Lushan, China (2010, 2012, 2014, 2016).