Anna Korver, an established New Zealand sculptor recently returned from Turkey after representing New Zealand at an international marble symposium.

Korver has been working full time as a sculptor since graduating from the University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts, completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture in 2003. Anna Korver, an established New Zealand sculptor recently returned from Turkey after representing New Zealand at an international marble symposium.

Korver has been working full time as a sculptor since graduating from the University of Canterbury, School of Fine Arts, completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture in 2003.She has worked both nationally and internationally exhibiting, completing commissions and attending symposiums. In 2005 she was invited to an international marble symposium in Costa Rica.

Though her work is predominantly figurative, the work she created in Turkey was a more abstract piece inspired by her interest in the environment; as she is also a trustee on the board of Eco Artists New Zealand, a charitable trust that uses funds from the sales of art to help environmental projects, specifically focusing on native New Zealand species and their ecosystems.

Her latest work has been said to have "moved away from the literalness of the figure to experience the gesture of its spirit."
Selected from around 60 international artists she attended the month long symposium with 14 artists from Turkey, Georgia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Uruguay, Romania, Germany and New Zealand. Korver was one of three women and the youngest sculptor carving.

"It was a great honor working with some of these artists who have had decades of experience, are internationally recognized but who were deeply humble people.."

The symposium was sponsored by the council of Alitindag, one of the largest sections of Ankara, the capital of Turkey. The works were purchased to be displayed publicly around the city. It was a huge opportunity not only to work with artists from different countries but to realise a work in large scale marble, which is difficult in New Zealand.

06/10/08