De Vries was born in Paramaribo, and is the half-brother of Henry Lucien de Vries, who served as governor of Suriname from 1965 until 1967. De Vries studied in the Netherlands with Ossip Zadkine. His work has since been displayed at the Stedelijk Museum and the Nationaal Monument Slavernijverleden (nl) in Amsterdam. De Vries has also exhibited a great deal in Jamaica; there he became acquainted with the work of Barrington Watson, whose erotically charged paintings match his own in tone.