Basic information

Name: Vincent Jong Tjien Fa (artist name: VINCE), 23 May 1970
Place of birth: Paramaribo, Suriname
Based in: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Discipline: Painting

EDUCATION

Medical studies in Rotterdam and Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Specialization in general practice, the Netherlands
Painting courses, early 1990s

BIOGRAPHY
Vincent Jong Tjien Fa, known professionally as VINCE, was born in Paramaribo, Suriname, to a Chinese father and a mother from Sint Maarten. His mother, also an artist, introduced him to painting at an early age by taking him to her drawing academy, where he received his first painting lessons. At thirteen, he moved to Sint Maarten and later completed secondary school in Curaçao. He subsequently moved to the Netherlands to study medicine in Rotterdam and Amsterdam and trained as a general practitioner.

The Caribbean has remained a central source of inspiration throughout his life and work. His vivid, contrasting palette reflects his diverse cultural background. Jong Tjien Fa paints human faces and bodies, reducing them to rounded forms and geometric fields of color. His practice developed from largely abstract compositions into more recognizable human forms and expressionistic portraits, and later into layered, abstract heads. Inspired by traditions of body adornment from around the world, he uses existing and invented patterns to explore identity, origin, emotion and struggle. His figures often appear to move freely through space, and his work is distinguished by its exuberant use of color.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2023 — Who’s Afraid of Color?  Galerie 23, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2013 — Galerie 23, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2010 — Solo exhibition, Galerie 23, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2009 — Solo exhibition, Gallery Alma Blou, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles
2009 — Noordwaarts 5, Zamenhofstraat, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2009 — Group exhibition, Noordwaarts, Hagedoornplein Library, Amsterdam, The e Netherlands
2009 — Group exhibition, Badhuis, Museum De Noord, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2009 — Painting presentation, Riba un skalchi di oro, Tula commemoration, Muiderkerk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2008 — Solo exhibition, Cutis Ornato, Gallery Pauw, Oisterwijk, the Netherlands
2003 — Solo exhibition, Rondó na Koló, Gallery Kas di Alma Blou, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands