Mélange Travel & Lifestyle Magazine January 2018 | Page 219

Korea; Tropisch Koninkrijk, The Netherlands, 2013;
Island Reflections: The Art of Curaçao in Michigan, USA,
2011; The Primero Trienal Internacional del Caribe in
the Dominican Republic, 2010; The Caribbean in the
Age of Modernity, Trinidad, 2006, the Seventh Biennial
of Havana, Cuba, 2000, the Sixth Taiwan Golden
Ceramics Awards Exhibition in Taiwan, 2000.
She had many solo exhibitions in Curaçao, Aruba,
Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Belgium and the
Netherlands.
Her work has appeared in many international
publications, such as:
Ellen Spijkstra was born and raised in The
Netherlands. In 1980, one year after finishing
Academy Minerva, School for Fine Arts and Design,
Groningen (1974-1979), she moved with her
husband to his home country Curaçao. It is where
she started her career as a visual artist. She founded
her ceramic studio and started giving classes.
From 1985-1986 she lived in Rochester, NY, USA,
were she studied glass blowing, clay and glaze
theory and kiln building at the Rochester Institute of
Technology. After returning to Curaçao she has been
organizing workshops in her studio at Girouette.
Ceramists of international renown have been her
guests.
Her tropical island environment is the fundamental
inspiration that embodies her work: shapes and
textures of coral, the pattern of a leaf, materials and
the process of erosion or damage. After winning
a local photo competition in 1985, photography
became an important aspect of her artistic work.
Her fascination with abstract details of the islands
architecture and nature leads to photographs with
an almost painting-like quality. She participated with
both her ceramics sculptures and her photographs
in many international group exhibitions, such as:
Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the
Caribbean Archipelago, Long Beach, CA, 2017;
Gyeonggi International Ceramic Biennale 2015, S.
Caribbean: Together apart, Contemporary Artists from
(part of) the Caribbean
Luciano Benetton Collection, 2014, p 352,253
Islas del Caribe: naturaleza-arte-sociedad, Yolande
Wood, Editorial Clasco, Cuba, 2012, page 202-204,
Curaçao Classics, Felix de Rooy and Jennifer Smit, KIT
publishers, 2012, page 118,119 and 136-139
Global Local, Ellen Spijkstra, ceramics & photography
Marjan Unger, Marianne de Tolentino a.o., Uitgeverij
d’jonge Hond, 2008, 134 pages.
In 2013, a 30 minute film about her work was made
by Felix de Rooy and Kirk Claes: Rust & Coral .
Ellen is a member of the International Academy of
Ceramics.