Artist Statement


Sylvia Vander Sluis unites incongruous materials in raw emotional constructions. Her sculptures confound and entice with their conflicting references.


Limen is a new project of constructions made primarily of paper (newspaper, Kraft). These quiet pieces result from gluing many layers of paper, which sometimes are left exposed and other times are transformed with acrylic and sand. Themes to date are vessels, resting platforms, and rustic boats.


In her Ferocious Whimsey series, Vander Sluis focuses on the disorienting experience of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s during the pandemic. The artist grounds her recent work in home as a microcosm of the arc from creation to decline. With unpredictable mixtures of industrial and domestic materials, her sculpture displays a raw sensibility that embraces the complexities of family within a social context.


In her Sugar and Spice series, Vander Sluis plays with fireworks canisters, brightly colored toys, and creamy modeling paste. Her forms appear playful until you look more closely. A container is coated with icing-like yellow; its surface holds a heart, but also caution signs, and it has a charred interior. A domestic diorama includes crumbling walls and broken bottles, amidst a dining area strewn with riotously colored beads.


Inspired by the folds of rosin paper, the transparency of cheesecloth, and the grit of gravel, she creates metaphors for the dualities of life in her Material Tension series. In one sculpture, plaster gauze holds Styrofoam precariously on structures of willow branches. A hanging length of painted cheesecloth alludes to skin, with its fragility and resilience.