Jennifer Tee is known for her experimental, interdisciplinary practice, unencumbered by delineations in form. Working in an array of mediums such as tulip petal collages, ceramic domes, knitted floor pieces, and pineapple cloth tapestries, all of Tee’s works point toward the vulnerable relationship between nature and culture, language and perception, beauty and destruction, while exploring how all of these ideas play into questions of land rights, nationality, belonging, and ecology. Her quixotic environments can often be activated, engendering their own rituals.
Tee is widely celebrated for her Tampan Tulips,a series of collages made from pressed tulip petals, with motifs taken from the Tampan, square-shaped woven cloths that were exchanged during important rites of passage. Tampan are found in the Lampung region of southern Sumatra, a crucial trade route since antiquity, a crossroads of cultures and traditions. Predominantly featuring ships with a mast that often branches out into a tree of life, the tampan is evocative of human souls continuing onto new lives. The reference to migration is of particular interest to Tee, as her father migrated with his parents and sister to the Netherlands from Indonesia on a ship in the 1950s. The geometric and mirrored patterns visualize the orders of society as well as the universe and are seen as portals leading from the material to the spiritual world.
Jennifer Tee (1973) lives and works in Amsterdam, NL. She was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, NL, and ISCP, New York, US. Tee was awarded the Amsterdam Prize for the Arts, 2020. Recent solo exhibitions include: Still Shifting, Mother Field, Secession, AT; DRIFT, multilingual performance choreography, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NL; Ether Plane ~ Material Plane, ISCP, New York, US; Let it Come Down, Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, DE; Let it Come Down, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK; Structures of Recollections and Perseverance, Kunstraum, London, UK; Tulip Palepai, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, NL; The Soul in Limbo, 6th Cobra Art Prize, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen, NL; Occult Geometry, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, DK; Practical Magic, Project Art Centre Gallery Dublin, IR; Local Myths, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK; and Nameless Swirls, an Unfolding in Presence, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL. Selection of group shows and biennials: The 13th Liverpool Biennale, Lahore Biennale 03, the 33rd Istanbul Biennial, the São Paulo Bienale, São Paulo, BR, Retour sur Mulholland Drive, La Panacée, Montpelier, FR, What people do for money, Manifesta 11, Zurich CH, The Peacock, Grazer Kunstverein, AT, Six Possibilities for a Sculpture, La Loge, Brussels BE, Beyond Imagination, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam NL, Secret Societies, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt DE, Nether Land, Dutch Culture Center, Shanghai World Expo; Sao Paulo Biennial.
Lahore Biennale 2024 featuring Jennifer Tee
Lahore, Pakistan5 Oct - 8 Nov 2024The third edition of the Lahore Biennale, scheduled to run from Oct 5-Nov 8, 2024, addresses the subject of ecology and sustainable futures from the perspectives of Lahore, and Asia...Learn MoreJennifer Tee
Ancestral Beginnings, Sessile Beings15 Feb - 16 Mar 2024Learn MoreStill Shifting, Mother Field
Kunstinstituut Melly20 Jan - 21 May 2024The exhibition Still Shifting, Mother Field , by artist Jennifer Tee includes newly commissioned ceramic sculptures, textile installations, performances, and collages. Tee was born in Arnhem, the Netherlands in 1973....Learn MoreStill Shifting, Mother Field
Wiener Secession16 Sep - 6 Nov 2022How can we return to—or redefine—humanity’s place in our natural environment and the cosmos? What are the potentials for an ensouled world in light of its contemporary instability and complexity?...Learn MoreSaguine Sea | Ear, Epoch, Earth
16th Istanbul Biennial14 Sep - 10 Nov 2019The Seventh Continent is an anthropology of an off-centered world and an archaeology of our times. It defines today’s art as an archipelago of diverse enquiries into global life, tracking...Learn MoreLet it Come Down
Camden Arts Centre2 Jul - 17 Sep 2017Often working with charged cultural artefacts and symbols, Tee pairs diverse points of inspiration to instigate dialogues between Eastern philosophies and Western culture. Let It Come Down was a new...Learn More
Embodied responses to climate emergencies at the Lahore Biennale 2024
stir world November 14, 2024Material responses to anxious ecologies were at the centre of the recently concluded Lahore Biennale, Of Mountains and Seas , which mapped the reflections of...Learn MoreJennifer Tee on Tulips, Documenting Migration, and Living at the Margins of History
The Offing June 28, 2024Dutch artist Jennifer Tee recently concluded her New York debut Ancestral Beginnings, Sessile Beings at Tina Kim Gallery. Known for her versatile practice that traverses...Learn MoreTina Kim Illuminates the 6 Best of Basel in June
Whitewall June 14, 2024The illustrious Tina Kim founded her namesake gallery in 2001 in New York, and ever since then has been a guiding light in the international...Learn MoreFrieze New York Brings a Rich, Cross-Cultural Mix
The New York Times May 2, 2024Tulips! Manhattan has been Tulip City over the past couple of spring weeks, as I was reminded by Crumpler’s paintings and, at Tina Kim Gallery...Learn MoreJennifer Tee: Ancestral Beginnings, Sessile Beings
Brooklyn Rail March 16, 2024Artist Jennifer Tee joins Rail contributor Barbara Pollack for a conversation. Jennifer Tee Jennifer Tee lives and works in Amsterdam, NL. She was a resident...Learn MoreInside Frieze Los Angeles, California's Hottest Art Fair
Maxim March 1, 2024Pioneering powerbroker Tina Kim is sharing an extensive array of works from her notably intellectual roster all weekend. Disparate artistic approaches harmonize on the common...Learn MoreJennifer Tee Collages Tulips into Vivid, Cross-Cultural Tapestries
Artsy February 26, 2024Jennifer Tee eagerly anticipates the tulip harvest every spring. Born in Arnhem in the Dutch countryside, Tee’s life was always framed by the floral landscape....Learn MoreTina Kim Gallery to Host the First Solo Exhibition of Jennifer Tee
WIDEWALLS February 21, 2024Investigating her Chinese-Indonesian ancestry, Jenifer Tee creates works that address complex topics of cultural hybridity, identity, migration, colonialism, and human involvement with the cosmos and...Learn MoreFebruary Round-Up | Museum of Modern Art, Asia Art Centre, MAMOTH, Tina Kim Gallery, Tai Kwun Contemporary
Art & Market February 1, 2024‘Ancestral Beginnings, Sessile Beings’ is Jennifer Tee ’s debut solo exhibition in New York. It showcases multiple series of works such as hand-knit floor pieces,...Learn MoreA fascinating awkwardness: on Jennifer Tee’s exhibition Still Shifting, Mother Field
Metropolis M October 2, 2023This weekend Jennifer Tee’s solo at Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (in cooperation with Secession Vienna), can be experienced full scale, including the performances. Robin Waart, who...Learn MoreSpiritual Journeys with Jennifer Tee
CHECK-IN July 12, 2023Jennifer Tee is a Dutch artist with Chinese-Indonesian heritage. Central to her multifaceted practice is an interest in what she calls “the soul in limbo”,...Learn MoreJennifer Tee “Still Shifting, Mother Field” at Secession, Vienna
Mousse Magazine October 25, 2022How can we return to—or redefine—humanity’s place in our natural environment and the cosmos? What are the potentials for an ensouled world in light of...Learn More
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