about

Ivna Esajas has a studio in Amsterdam Zuid Oost, at the Open Ateliers Foundation (Kruitberg).

In June 2023 she graduated from the Sandberg institute’s Blacker Blackness course with a masters degree. In 2024 she received the Mondriaan fund 'start' grant. 

Ivna makes large drawings on canvas that arise intuitively. Lines on canvas following and exploring form and in- between spaces. Trying to make connections between present and past, personal stories and memories. Stories and memories that wander around the universe, threading through time. Stories about connection between what is and what was, between seeing and sensing.

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“For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light falls, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out. “ – James Baldwin.

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This poem hangs in her studio as an amulet of affirmation.
His words align with her fascination for interpersonal relationships, family ties, community.

But also this sense of time the ever changing eternity that’s always present as a shadow or ancestor.