darwin, SINKE &
van Tongeren
17th century flamboyant taxidermy by 21st century Dutch artists
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.
