Surinamese artist Ruben Cabenda (Paramaribo) has been drawing constantly since he was young. He wanted to become a portrait artist so he enrolled at Nola Hatterman Art Academy, for preparatory art education in Paramaribo.
As part of the collaboration between Nola Hatterman (SUR) and Gerrit Rietveld Academy (NL), he obtained his bachelor's degree in fine arts in Amsterdam (2014). During his studies in Amsterdam he experimented with various media including installation, sculpture, performance, painting and animation. His curiosity for animation grew from his 2nd year of the BFA program. The possibility of highlighting or portraying a subject, thoughts, emotions, stories etc. through animation is very fascinating for Cabenda. He won the Gerrit Rietveld Fine Arts Academy Prize for his graduation presentation.
After his study Ruben returned to Suriname and started teaching at the Nola Hatterman Academy. In 2018 he switched to the general education system and is currently a drawing teacher in high schools.
In his autonomous practice he draws his inspiration from the possibilities that exist to become better as a person, and artist. He uses what he sees around him in the context of Suriname, the environment, nature, people, his origins, the past, present and the future. His curiosity of his origins brought him to focus on the theme of identity and slavery. How the past is connected to the present and how that influences the descendants of the slaves. Through his work he wants to instigate and increase awareness and provoke positive thought and empowerment in his (white and black) audiences ‘today’.