Melissa Cijntje

Bio

Melissa Cijntje (b. Curaçao, 1997) is a visual artist exploring colonial history, cultural memory, and resilience.

In What Remains, she uses clay to create forms that bear the marks of touch, absence, and fracture, connecting the Caribbean’s past to parallel histories in Southeast Asia. Working in Hoorn, a former VOC hub, Melissa engages with local archives and interviews to uncover shared wounds left by Dutch imperial trade. Her works invite viewers to approach difficult histories through beauty, creating space for dialogue, reflection, and the possibility of repair.