Nelfa Querubin

 

 

 

Nelfa Querubin-Tompkins 

Born 1941 in Iloilo, Philippines

Lives and works in Golden, Colorado 

"The mystery in the materials and processes of clay, its endless color, textures, forms and shapes, drive my creativity with boundless joy."

Nelfa, after becoming one of the well-known printmakers in the Philippines, pioneered studio pottery at a time when clay was not accepted as a fine art medium. More importantly, she formulated her own clay bodies and glazes, used found materials, fashioned her own tools, and constructed her own wood-firing kiln sourced on site from the earth of her native Miag-ao in Iloilo, where she built her ceramic studio. For these and her excellent artistic output, she was one of the recipients of the 1980 Cultural Center of the Philippines Thirteen Artists Award, in recognition for her contribution to the indigenous movement in the Philippine contemporary art.

 A technically dexterous experimentalist, she uses the slab technique and practices the traditional method of forming and shaping as well. Oftentimes she applies techniques in printmaking and painting with stains or glazes or leave parts of her work unglazed to show the natural color of the clay. Many of Nelfa's works are refired several times to meet her standard of beauty, bearing the abstract purity of form, line, and earthiness of texture. The noted Colorado art critic Mary Voeltz Chandler refers to Nelfa's work "as most unusual...objects that look as if someone used clay to create fiber or a non-representational painting, Nelfa Querubin-Tompkins' Abstract Landscape and Deep River might suggest specific themes in their titles, but the result is the best reflection of a work of art: They attract, prompt questions, never give up their secrets right away, and demonstrate a universal truth about the power of clay, which in this case mixes vessel and sculpture to create a third entity."

Nelfa has had 17 solo exhibitions including 2 retrospectives, had participated in national and international exhibitions. She was featured in international and national publications, authored CLAY AND WOODFIRING and LIFE WITH CLAY. She did workshops as visiting artist in art centers in Colorado and in the Philippines, and guest lecturer in the universities and art groups. Her works are in the permanent collection of Central Bank of the Philippines, Cultural Center of the Philippines, University of the Philippines, Visayas, Design Center of the Philippines, private collectors in the Philippines, Asia, Europe, Middle East, USA, and Vance Kirkland Museum of Denver in Colorado.

 

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Nelfa Querubin Collection

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