Basic information

Name: Norva Martina Sling, 12 November 1947
Place of birth: Curaçao
Based in: the Netherlands
Discipline: Ceramic art

BIOGRAPHY
Norva Martina Sling is a Curaçaoan ceramic artist whose career began in 1972. Celebrated in Curaçao and the Netherlands, she draws inspiration primarily from nature and its cycle of birth and death. She works intuitively with rounded, smoothly modelled convex and concave forms shaped from cool, moist clay. Guided by inner strength, feeling, and intuition rather than predetermined stylistic conventions, she is drawn to African forms. Her sculptural language focuses especially on femininity in all aspects of life. From 1975 to 1993, Sling and her former husband maintained a home studio with a private sculpture garden.

EDUCATION
Three years of training in clay techniques at Keramos under the guidance of Lenn Gillen.
1974 — Lived in the United States for one year while her former husband pursued ceramics training at the University of Burlington.
She identifies herself as a self-thought artist.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS since 2000

2018 — Formanan di Amor, a selection from Norva Sling: Vormen van Liefde, Landhuis Bloemhof, Curaçao
2017 — Norva Sling: Vormen van Liefde, retrospective exhibition, Museum Beelden aan Zee, the Netherlands
2011 — Perseveransia, solo exhibition, Kas di Kultura, Curaçao
2010 — Antepasado di Futuro, Curaçao Museum, Curaçao
Additional exhibitions in the United States, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Belgium

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Felix de Rooy and Jennifer Smit: Norva Sling: Vormen van Liefde. Catalogue raisonné. ISBN 978-9-07602-828-6

AWARDS

1991 — Cola Debrot Prize, jointly awarded with Nel Simon

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Blue Bay Sculpture Garden, Curaçao