Ellen Spijkstra (born 3 August 1957) is a Dutch

ceramic art Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take varied forms, including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is a visual art. While ...

ist and photographer, resident in

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

Biography

Ellen Spijkstra was educated at the Academie Minerva in

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

. In 1980 she moved to Curaçao with her husband, Eric de Brabander. In 1985–1986 she took a summer course in glassblowing at the

Rochester Institute of Technology The Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in Henrietta, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York, Rochester. It was founded in 1829. It is one of only two institute of technology, institut ...

in the

Rochester, New York metropolitan area The Rochester metropolitan area, denoted the Rochester, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area by the United States Census Bureau, is a metropolitan statistical area consisting of six counties in Western New York, anchored by the city of Rochester, Ne ...

, followed by theory courses in

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

and glaze studies and

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

construction as part of the

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

Ceramics program. After this year-long hiatus, she settled permanently in Curaçao. She established the ceramics studio Girouette and gave ceramics courses until 2012. Photography was initially only a hobby but after winning a local photography competition in 1985, she developed into a dual talent. In 1991 she completed a photography course at the New York Institute of Photography. Spijkstra draws much of her inspiration from Curaçao's natural environment. She combines her ceramics with rock and

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

fragments and integrates photos of corals in her ceramics. Her main themes are land and water, life and decay. She creates ceramic pieces on a variety of scales, ranging from small to monumental, and prefers to work on series. Spijkstra has taught at, among others, the Instituto Buena Bista in Curaçao, the Ateliers '89 in

Aruba Aruba, officially the Country of Aruba, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the southern Caribbean Sea north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná Peninsula, Paraguaná and northwest of Curaçao. In 19 ...

and the Taller Escuela Arte Fuego in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

. As an

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

she worked at the Taller Varadero in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

(seventh Havana Biennale), the Resen International Ceramic Colony in Resen and the Shangyu Celadon Modern International Ceramic Center in

Shangyu Shangyu District () is a district of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing in the northeast of Zhejiang province, China. At the 2010 census, its population in the built-up (''or metro'') area was 779,412, up from 722,523 in the 2000 census. Shang ...

, China. Spijkstra's work is held, among other museums, in the collection of the Curaçaosch Museum. She is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics.

Publications

*''Global Local: Ellen Spijkstra Ceramics and Photography.'' Harderwijk: d'jonge Hond, 2008. With texts by Saskia Meijer and Marjan Unger. .

Solo exhibitions

* 1988 Ceramic sculptures and photographs, Het Curaçaosch Museum * 1989 Ellen Spijkstra, Taller Escuela Arte Fuego, Caracas * 1993 Lustrum Prijs, Curaçaosch Museum, Curaçao * 2000 Curaçao Harbor Tour, * 2003 Passage of Time, Art Studio Insight, Aruba * 2004 Waterwerk, Dutch Maritime Museum, Amsterdam * 2008 Kleurgamma Downtown, Amsterdam * 2008 Photoimagen, The French Embassy Gallery,

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

* 2008 Global Local, Galerie Bloemhof, Curaçao * 2009 Ellen Spijkstra, Photography and Ceramics, Galerie Taptoe,

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

* 2013 Oud en Nieuw, Avila Beach Hotel, Curaçao * 2015/18 Open Atelier Route, Studio Girouette, Curaçao * 2019 Ellen Spijkstra – An artistic journey, Het Curaçaosch Museum, Curaçao

Awards

* 1985 First Prize, photo competition 'Inner Wheel', Curaçao * 1989 Third Prize, international photo competition 'Architecture', New York Institute of Photography, USA * 1990 Award of Merit, international photo competition 'Romance', New York Institute of Photography, USA * 1993 Curaçao Museum Lustrum Prize, Curaçao * 1999 Honorable Mention Arte '99, Curaçao * 2000 Award final selection, Sixth Taiwan Golden Ceramics Awards Exhibition; the opening exhibition of the new Taipei County Yingko Ceramic Museum,

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

* 2014 Best Work of Art Tile, Elit-Tile 2014/2015, Premio Fundación Susana de Moya,

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

* 2015 Honorable Mention, Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2015,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

* 2023 Cola Debrot Prize

Ceramics

File:Ellen Spijkstra Totem of Confusions 60x30x220 cm earthenware, underglaze and oxides 2000.jpg, ''Totem of Confusions'' (60x30x220 cm), earthenware, underglaze and oxides, 7th biennial of Havana, 2000 File:Ellen Spijkstra Frozen Turmoil 20x18x30 cm marbled earthenware, fossil coral and steel 2004.jpg, ''Frozen Turmoil'' (20x18x30 cm), marbled earthenware, fossil coral and steel, 2004 File:Ellen Spijkstra Presenting the Stone V 20x20x30 cm glazed earthenware, porcelain, fossil limestone, coral stone and steel 2004.jpg, ''Presenting the Stone V'' (20x20x30 cm), glazed earthenware, porcelain, fossil limestone, coral stone and steel, 2004 File:Ellen Spijkstra Gateway to a Gateway 650x15x400 cm glazed stoneware 2011.jpg, ''Gateway to a Gateway'' (650x15x400 cm), glazed stoneware, Maduro & Curiel's Bank, 2011 File:Ellen Spijkstra Sea Urchin 38x45x43 cm glazed stoneware with ceramic decal 2015.jpg, ''Sea Urchin'' (38x45x43 cm), glazed stoneware with ceramic decal, 2015 File:Ellen Spijkstra Orange Blossom-43x30x150 cm stoneware, underglazes, steel 2019.jpg, ''Orange Blossom'' (43x30x150 cm), stoneware, underglazes, steel, 2019 File:Ellen Spijkstra Flor di Sumpiña 20x20x65 cm glazed stoneware and copper 2020.jpg, ''Flor di Sumpiña'' (20x20x65 cm), glazed stoneware and copper, Cathedral of thorns, 2020

Photography

File:Ellen Spijkstra Mi kacho 1992.jpg, ''Mi Kacho'', 1992 File:Ellen Spijkstra Curacao Harbor Tour no 1 1998.jpg, ''Curaçao Harbor Tour no 1'', 1998 File:Ellen Spijkstra Curacao Harbor Tour no 33 2000.jpg, ''Curaçao Harbor Tour no 33'', 2000 File:Ellen Spijkstra Detail of a 275 year old synagoge 2007.jpg, ''Detail of a 275-year-old synagogue'', 2007 File:Ellen Spijkstra Vagina monoloog 2007.jpg, ''Vagina monologue'', 2007 File:Ellen Spijkstra Caribbean Harbor Tour no 16 2014.jpg, ''Caribbean Harbor Tour no 16'', 2014 File:Ellen Spijkstra Ritual pa union i forsa 2017.jpg, ''Ritual pa union i forsa'', 2017

References

* This article was translated fro
this version
of the article on NL Wikipedia.

General references

* * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spijkstra, Ellen 1957 births Living people 20th-century Dutch women artists 21st-century Dutch women artists Dutch photographers Dutch women ceramists Dutch women photographers Curaçao artists People from Hattem 20th-century Dutch ceramists 20th-century Dutch photographers 21st-century ceramists 21st-century Dutch photographers Member of the International Academy of Ceramics