Ivna Esajas - In The Garden of My Good Days

In The Garden of My Good Days is the first museum solo show in the Netherlands of the artist Ivna Esajas. In this exhibition, Ivna  explores ways to challenge the space of the museum, to claim her place literally and figuratively. Her work refuses to conform and follow fixed ideas of beauty or perfection.Her works are stories in their own right.

It is often poetry that inspires Ivna and in which she finds meaning. These poems approach the core of her work with no need for explanation or to provide an explicit message. Ivna invites the viewer to have their own interpretation of the work. The title of the exhibition comes from the poem The Ragged and the Beautiful by the Jamaican poet and writer Safiya Sinclair.

Ivna makes large drawings on canvas, that explore the daily life and world of black people and of the black imagination. In togetherness and intimacy, the crowd of figures in the compositions stand free from external judgment or imposition. They are connected to each other, as if their individual balance is dependent on them staying united, in solidarity, in celebration and in love.

Ivna’s  works arise intuitively. Lines on canvas following and exploring forms and in-between spaces. Lines connecting present and past, personal stories and memories. Stories and memories that wander around the universe linking what is and what was to what we see and we feel.

Ivna Esajas has a studio in Amsterdam Zuid Oost, at the Open Ateliers Foundation (Kruitberg). She graduated from the Sandberg institute’s Blacker Blackness course (2023 ) with a master’s degree. In 2024 she received the Mondriaan fund 'Kunstenaar Start' grant. 

Esajas work has been previously shown in solo exhibition at Metro54 in Amsterdam (2024), as well as in many group exhibitions among which at CBK Zuid Oost (2024), Kunstenlab (2023), and Open Ateliers Zuidoost (2023).

 

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