Since 2013, Ferry van Tongeren and Jaap Sinke started collaborating under the name; Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren. Placing the name of Charles Darwin before their own is a tribute to the great naturalist and geologist. Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren is dedicated to showing the beauty of nature is a baroque extravagant way

Van Tongeren and Sinke met in 1994 while working as advertising creatives at Ogilvy & Mather in Amsterdam. Van Tongeren later founded his own agency, Doom & Dickson, where Sinke subsequently became a partner. The agency was sold and van Tongeren decided on a new career in taxidermic art, a subject that had long fascinated him. He studied the techniques under the guidance of two notable Dutch taxidermists. This led to him working as a taxidermist at the highly respected, National Museum of Natural History, in Leiden, one of the oldest and largest taxidermy collections in the world, where he continues to extend his knowledge. So passionate was he about this extraordinary change of direction that he persuaded Sinke to also train in taxidermic techniques and join him in this new creative path.

They launched their first collection ‘La Vie de L’Eden’ at the end of 2014. Subsequently Damien Hirst bought the artists’ entire first exhibition. Since then their 17th century-inspired work has been sold worldwide to museums, collectors, investors and also many artists and creatives around the world. 

FIRST COLLABORATION

At the end of 2017 Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren were asked to curate a museum exhibition. Together with Dutch artist Armando they created fifteen rooms at MOA where they combined Armando’s paintings and sculptures with Fine Taxidermy compositions and photographs that they made especially for this exhibit. Combined with the beautiful house and its rare wallpaper collection resulted in a gesamtkunstwerk that attracted a large crowd for this hidden treasure. It was MOA’s best visited exhibition.

SECOND AND THIRD ART PRINT COLLECTION

The second Art Print Collection titled ‘Unknown Poses’ was released at the beginning of 2015. After the first Art Print collection titled 'Avis Oxi Action’ sold out. The third photography collection is titled ‘Les Peintures des Taxidermistes’. After observing and analysing so many 17th-century paintings, they were inspired to create a new series of work focused on still life masterpieces. They chose photography as the medium to portray their work interpreted through vanitas still lifes.

FIRST ART SOCIETY EXHIBIT

Saint Joseph's Art Society asked Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren to exhibit their work during the opening of the highly anticipated restored venue. The artists created a photo collection and the six paper maché black polar bears waving flags and banners. They are now icons of the San Francisco society. Sinke & van Tongeren are founding members of the SJAS.

FIRST TIME IN TEYLERS

The Haarlem based artists have recreated John James Audubon’s iconic flamingo especially for the ‘Vogelpracht’ exhibition at Teylers Museum. As an artist, John James Audubon is one of the sources of inspiration for their own work.

THEIR LATEST EXHIBITION

‘The Remains of the 1900 London Convention’ is a series of animal skeletons based on ancient marble sculptures. The collection is an homage to the beauty of the remains of the creatures, which we argue was – and is – our responsibility as humans to protect. Most of the animals shown are on the endangered species list and some of them are species on the edge of extinction.

As well as the skeleton collection, there is also a new multimedia photo-collection, for which they collaborated with Naturalis, the renowned Museum of Natural History in Leiden. These predominantly black-and-white art prints feature the skulls and bones of endangered species in a highly contemporary way.

This exhibition is an indictment against 122 years of international politics. It focuses on the first multilateral treaty on wildlife by European colonial powers that attempted to protect wild animals. However, the agreements that resulted from the convention were signed but never ratified by the attending countries. Ironically, 120 years of ‘animal protection’ has in fact marked the period where human activity has pushed biodiversity to the edge.

FIRST PUBLICATION

Author: Helen Chislett, Sinke & van Tongeren

The first 5 years of the efforts Darwin, Sinke & van Tongeren bundled in a 304 page book titled ‘Our First Book’.
(Both 1st. and 2nd. edition are sold out)