Ellen Spijkstra (born 3 August 1957) is a Dutch

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

ist and photographer, resident in Curaçao.

Biography

Ellen Spijkstra was educated at the

Academie Minerva Academie Minerva is a Dutch art academy. The academy was founded in 1798 in Groningen as a school for arts, architecture, construction engineering, and seamanship.Dijk, F. van (1998) ''Leraren van de Academie Minerva. Een keuze uit twee eeuwen k ...

in Groningen. 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 Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

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. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

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. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

construction as part of the Master of Fine Arts 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 The New York Institute of Photography (or NYIP) is a for-profit online school based out of New York City, offering different courses in photography to students all over the world. NYIP currently offers ten courses in photography. History The New ...

. Spijkstra draws much of her inspiration from Curaçao's natural environment. She combines her ceramics with rock and

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and ...

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 and the Taller Escuela Arte Fuego in Caracas. As an artist-in-residence she worked at the Taller Varadero in

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

(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. Shan ...

, 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 Marianne de Boer, later known as Marjan Unger (11 February 1946 – 27 June 2018), was a Dutch art historian. She acquired a public reputation as the author of a standard work on Dutch jewelry and as a jewelry collector. Life and work Early ...

. .

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 , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

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

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

* 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, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

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

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

* 2015 Honorable Mention, Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2015,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

* 2023

Cola Debrot Prize Nicolaas (Cola) Debrot (4 May 1902 – 3 December 1981) was a writer, lawyer, medical doctor and politician. Biography Debrot was born in Kralendijk, the son of a plantation owner. In 1904 he moved from Bonaire to Curaçao, and then when he was ...

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 ceramists Dutch photographers Dutch women ceramists Dutch women photographers Curaçao artists People from Hattem 20th-century ceramists 20th-century Dutch photographers 21st-century ceramists 21st-century Dutch photographers