Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi is woman visual artist, who also loves to write. She was born, works and lives in Paramaribo, Suriname, South America. Kit-Ling studied visual art in Suriname and the Netherlands. She was traditionally trained by well-known artists such as Stuart Robbles de Medina and Rudi Getrouw (Suriname), Nico Molenkamp and Ru van Rossum (Holland), with an emphasis on painting, drawing and graphic art (etching, dry point, etcetera). In 2005, after successfully attending a workshop in the ‘oneminutes’ video film, organized by the Sandberg Institute (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) and the Akademie voor Hoger Kunst en Cultuuronderwijs (AHKCO – Art Academy, Paramaribo, Suriname), Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi added the short video-film as a medium to her artwork.
Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi participated in numerous national and international group exhibitions, and had several solo exhibitions.
Around the turn of the century, she started to write informative articles on Surinamese visual artists. These articles were published in the magazine PIT and the daily newspaper de Ware Tijd. Once she started writing, she became fond of it and her writing was well received. Together with her last solo exhibition, an artbook and novel, Het Alakondre drakenmeisje (Alakondre Dragongirl) was published. The three previous solo exhibitions were accompanied by booklets, small catalogs containing short stories, poems, and an essay. All texts were written by Kit-Ling herself.
Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi has initiated and managed many art projects. These art projects were accomplished as an individual artist and together with other artists. The projects in which she participated as an initiator, a manager, and an artist, were the so-called ‘Community Art Projects’ organized by the Federation of Visual Artists in Suriname (FVAS). Kit-Ling is a charter-member and has been the secretary since the foundation of FVAS in 1998 until 2017.
In 2013 Kit-Ling Tjon Pian Gi received the Bridget Jones Travel Award.
Bridget Jones Caribbean Arts Award