Born in Amsterdam in 1955, Evelien Sipkes spent part of her childhood in Curaçao and returned to the island in 1996, where she has continued to live and work. Her artistic practice spans ceramics, contemporary jewellery, wearable art, and mixed media, and is marked by a strong sensitivity to material, detail, memory, and organic form. Over the years, she has developed a distinctive visual language in which personal history and tactile presence come together with quiet force.
With De Tuinfluiter, Evelien Sipkes presents a deeply personal exhibition rooted in family history. The project grew from boxes of letters, photographs, and documents belonging to her grandparents, including her grandfather’s final letter from the Second World War.
At the heart of the exhibition is the story of her grandmother, who sheltered people in hiding and contributed to underground resistance newspapers during the war. Everyday objects from her grandmother’s home reappear in ceramic form, transformed into carriers of memory, intimacy, and reflection. What begins as one family story opens onto broader themes of loss, resilience, womanhood, and survival.
Evelien Sipkes is no stranger to The Curaçao Museum. In 2020, shortly after one of the first Covid lockdown periods, her work was also included in the museum’s group exhibition 2020 Ekstremo, Pa Koroná e Obra, alongside Bianca Berends, Herman van Bergen, Carlos Blaaker, and Yubi Kirindongo.
This New Solo Exhibition is a meaningful continuation of an artistic relationship already present within the museum’s programme.
The exhibition is curated by Sharelly Emanuelson and was made possible by the Cultuurfonds Caribisch Gebied.