Tiny de Graaf in studio

Visual Artist

Tiny de Graaf
Born
1990, Amsterdam
Based
Amsterdam, NL
Education
Rijksakademie, 2018–2019
Medium
Painting, Sculpture

My work investigates the relationship between time, material, and surface — how physical processes leave traces, and how those traces constitute meaning. I work primarily in oil and cold wax medium on linen, and increasingly in ceramic and cast sculpture.

I am interested in the difference between making a mark and making a gesture — between an act that adds to a surface and one that changes its character. My studio practice is built around slowness: paintings take months; ceramic series take seasons. The work earns its own time.

Studio view
Studio view
Studio view
Selected Exhibitions
  • 2024

    Sediment — New Works

    Galerie Licht

    Amsterdam
  • 2023

    Surface / Time

    Kunsthuis Rotterdam

    Rotterdam
  • 2023

    Form and Void

    Gallery Capsule

    Brussels
  • 2022

    Warmth Studies (Group Show)

    De Appel

    Amsterdam
  • 2021

    Material Evidence

    Stedelijk Museum Bureau

    Amsterdam
  • 2020

    Encaustic Dialogues

    Galerie Keulemans

    Utrecht
  • 2019

    New Graduates (Group Show)

    Rijksakademie Open Studios

    Amsterdam
Public Collections
  • Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
  • ING Art Collection, Amsterdam
  • Private collection, Brussels
  • Private collection, London
  • Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam
Press
  • “De Graff's surfaces hold time the way glaciers hold climate history — in compressed, irreversible strata.”

    NRC Handelsblad October 2024
  • “A rigorous painter who has found her voice in the space between accumulation and erasure.”

    Metropolis M September 2023
  • “The ceramic work introduces a new dimension — literally — to a practice that was already formally assured.”

    Artforum March 2023