Jose Tence Ruiz took two courses at the UST College of Fine Arts and Architecture, enrolling in BFA Advertising in 1973 and graduating with Honors with a BFA in Painting in 1979.  He was Editor-in-Chief of Vision Magazine in 1976. He has since been involved in multimedia visual activities such as Set Design, Publication Design, Book Illustration, Media presentations, Teaching, Editorial Illustration, Painting, Art for Advocacy, Sculpture, Installation and Autonomous Action Art. He is an Araw ng Maynila Awardee for New Media (2003), a Five Time AAP Award Winner (1979 – 2005) and the first Filipino to win the Bratislava Biennial Award for Children’s Book illustration in what was then Czechoslovakia (1982). He has been invited to the Cagnes-Sur-Mer Exhibition in France (1981), The 2nd Asia-Pacific Triennial for Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia (1996), The Havana Biennial in Cuba (2000), The Kwangju Biennial in Korea (1999), as well as the preparatory commission for the 1st Singapore Biennial (2004).  His work from the ‘70s and the ‘80s was featured in Telah Terbit: Asean Art of the 70s, one of the major exhibitions within the 2006 Singapore Biennial. He was part of a curatorial project representing the Philippines at the 2015 Venice Biennial (56th Biennale de Venezia).

Tence Ruiz did editorial illustrations for many Manila-based publications (Adarna Books, The Review, Who?, National Midweek, Business Page, The Manila Times, Philippine Panorama, The Manila Chronicle, Public Policy) as well as The Singapore Straits Times and InterPressService Asia-Pacific, which served Manila, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Singapore (1977 - 2004). He currently works as a multimedia artist and an independent writer/consultant/curator for such institutions as the Cultural Center of the Philippines, The National Commission for Culture and the Arts, The Pasig City Arts Museum, Neo-Angono Collective, Pananaw ng Sining Bayan and The Ateneo Art Gallery.