Tja Ling Hu

Overview

Artist photo credit: Sarah Dona

Tja Ling Hu (b. 1987) is a Dutch-Chinese visual artist whose work investigates the interplay between memory, diaspora, identity formation, and intergenerational narratives. She received her MFA and BFA from the Luca School of Arts in Ghent and previously studied design at HKU Utrecht. She has held residencies at the Vincent van GoghHuis and, most recently, at the Royal Delft Museum × STRAAT Museum.

Hu’s work examines the unspoken spaces shaped by immigration, diaspora, and womanhood, translating private recollections into layered, contemplative compositions. Drawing from both Eastern and Western visual languages, she considers how identity is formed through inherited narratives as well as through distance, silence, and what is left unrecorded across generations. Through precise and deliberate mark-making, Hu constructs scenes that are both intimate and symbolic. Many works begin with family photographs or historical images, which she reinterprets into settings where memory and imagination converge. For Hu, painting is a reflective practice—an ongoing inquiry into displacement, belonging, and the ways personal and collective histories intersect within diasporic experience.

Hu has exhibited at major institutions including the Amsterdam Museum, Het Scheepvaartmuseum, TENT Rotterdam, Framer Framed, and Museum IJsselstein. Key exhibitions include Collecting the City (Amsterdam Museum, 2024), Reflections (Het Scheepvaartmuseum, 2023), Who Wants to Live in a World Without Magic? (TENT Rotterdam, 2021), and Before I Was Born, Refresh Amsterdam (Amsterdam Museum, 2021). She has also presented work at Art Rotterdam (with Galerie Vriend van Bavink, 2025). Upcoming institutional projects include Global Surrealism at the Wereldmuseum Rotterdam (2026) and Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles at the Royal Delft Museum × STRAAT Museum (2026).

Hu’s work is included in the collections of the LAM Museum (Lisse), Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam UMC, and Het Scheepvaartmuseum, among others. She is a recipient of the Volkskrant Talenten distinction (#1 Illustration), grants from the Creative Industries Fund NL and Stichting Stokroos, and the Fiep Westendorp Stimuleringsprijs. Her work has been featured in De Volkskrant, Het Parool, Mister Motley, Museumtijdschrift, and other major Dutch media.

Biography

Artist photo credit: Sarah Dona

Tja Ling Hu (Bb.1987, Bussum)

Lives and works in Abcoude, NL

EDUCATION

2016 Master of Fine Arts (MFA), Luca School of Arts, Ghent, BE

2014 Bachelor of Arts, Luca School of Arts, Ghent, BE

2012 Bachelor of Arts, Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent, BE

2010 Bachelor of Design, HKU (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten), Utrecht, NL

RESIDENCIES

2025 Artist-in-Residence, Royal Delft Museum × STRAAT Museum, Delft / Amsterdam, NL

2023 Artist-in-Residence, Vincent van GoghHuis, Zundert, NL

2019 Opium Atelier, NPO Radio 4, Hilversum, NL

AWARDS / GRANTS

2022 Volkskrant Talenten 2023, #1 Illustration

2020 Creative Industries Fund NL (Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie)

2020 Stichting Stokroos Grant

2017 Fiep Westendorp Stimuleringsprijs

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2026 Investec Cape Town Art Fair (Solo) with Namuso Gallery, Cape Town, SA (upcoming)

2024 A Corner of the Universe, Galerie Vriend van Bavink, Amsterdam, NL

2017 Kunstenaar van de Maand, Zebrastraat, Ghent, BE

Tja Ling x De Makers Bureau Pop-Up Expo - solo exhibition, The Box Vlaanderen, Ghent, BE

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Art Busan, with Namuso Gallery, Busan, KR (upcoming)

Global Surrealism, Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, NL (upcoming)

Urban Blue – From Bricks to Tiles, Royal Delft Museum × STRAAT Museum, NL (upcoming)

2025 Boundaries: The Coping Individual, Namuso Gallery, The Hague, NL

Art Rotterdam, with Gallery Vriend van Bavink, Rotterdam, NL

2024 Collecting the City (Edition 4), Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, NL

2023 Residency Presentation, Van Gogh Galerie, Zundert , NL

Reflections, Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, NL

A Public Affair, Young Collectors Circle × Dead Darling Collective, Amsterdam, NL

2022 Verwantschap, Museum IJsselstein, IJsselstein, NL

15 jaar Fiep Westendorp, Illustratie Ambassade, Amsterdam

2021 Who wants to live in a world without magic? Tent Rotterdam, Rotterdam, NL

Before I was born, Refresh Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum

2020 “It's just a joke?” Framer Framed, Amsterdam, NL

2019 West of Where the Sun Goes Down, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL

2018 Group Exhibition, Museum IJsselstein, IJsselstein, NL

This Art Fair, Amsterdam, NL

2016 'Jonge Kunstenaars 2016', Sint-Lukasgalerie, Brussels, BE

2015 'No Man's Art Pop-up Gallery', No Man's Art Gallery, Rotterdam, NL

SELECTED PUBLICATION / COMMISSION

2023 Volkskrant Talenten, De Volkskrant

2022 Longing for Answers, column by Pauline Broekema, Museumtijdschrift

2021 Connected from a Distance, De Volkskrant Weekend, by Wieteke van Zeil

Image Rhyme, by Jedithja de Groot, Het Parool

Family History, video portrait, Refresh Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum

2020 Before I Was Born, publication by Tja Ling Hu, Jap Sam Books

Tja Ling Hu and Willem van de Velde, video portrait, Het Scheepvaartmuseum

2018 Chinese Traditions in the Present, Het Parool

OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

2024 Artist Talk, Poetry International Festival, LantarenVenster, Rotterdam

2023 Lecture, Beyond the Black Hole, Hard//hoofd, Pakhuis de Zwijger, Amsterdam

Workshop, Automatic Drawing, Sound and Vision, Royal Museums Greenwich, London

2022 Jury Member, Drawing Competition, Het Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam

Jury Member, Care Full, Art Utrecht, Utrecht

2020–2021 Guest Speaker, Artist Talks at Moving Gallery, TENT, Framer Framed, CBK Zuidoost and Ongekend Zeedijk

COLLECTION

Tja Ling Hu’s work is included in the collections of LAM Museum (Lisse), Amsterdam Museum (Amsterdam), Amsterdam UMC (Amsterdam), and Het Scheepvaartmuseum (Amsterdam), among others.

Art works