Through objects and site-responsive installations, Linda Sormin explores issues of architecture and form, and themes of fragility, aggression, mobility and survival. A site looms above and veers past, challenging her to compromise and give ground. She collects offerings, lays them at the feet of her sculptures, rolling and pinching forms into place. Her architecture hoards these objects in its folds, melting, leaning, lurching. Wire, clay, wood and metal barely contain fragments of fragile and lost things. Sormin’s sculptures seem as though they would tear cloth and flesh, or collapse with the brush of a hand. They dare the viewer to approach.
A Canadian artist who spent her early childhood in Thailand, this immigrant lives in fear of waste. Old yogurt is used to jumpstart the new batch; what is worth risking for things to get juicy and ripe? What might be discovered on the verge of things going bad?
Exhibitions
2016 Kindred Beasts, 2020 Everson Biennial, Syracuse, NY
2016 Non-Objective, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, CA
2016 Welcome: New Faculty Exhibition, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY
2015 Collision, Two-person exhibition with Heidi Bjørgan, Entrée Gallery, Bergen, Norway
2015 RE- REANIMATE, REPAIR, MELD & MEND, Bluecoat Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK
2015 Glazed and Diffuse, Ferrin Contemporary, North Adams, MA
2015 Continuum of Innovation: Haystack Clay Selects, Fuller Craft Museum, Brockton, MA
2015 In Residence, Watershed exhibition, New Bedford Art Museum, New Bedford, MA
2014 Jakarta Ceramics Biennial, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia
2014 Saribu Raja, Boru Parame, solo exhibition, SaRang Building, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
2014 Caméléon: 1st Virginia McClure Ceramic Biennale, McClure Gallery, Centre des arts visuels, Montréal, Canada. Curated by Jean-Pierre Larocque (catalog)
2014 Ceramic Top 40: New & Selected Works at Harvard, Boston, MA. Curated by Leslie Ferrin,
traveling exhibition from Red Star Studios, Kansas City, MO, USA (catalog)
2013 Royal Bank of Canada People’s Choice Award Exhibition (finalist), Gardiner Museum,
Toronto, CA
2013 Girls Just Want to Have Funds, La Mama Galleria (Rema Hort Mann Foundation panel and
exhibition), New York, NY
2013 Crafting a Continuum, Arizona State University Museum, Tucson, AZ (catalog)
2013 Code, NCECA 2013, Houston, TX
NCECA Biennial 2013, Houston, TX (catalog)
2012 My voice changes when I speak your language, (solo exhibition) Jane Hartsook Gallery,
New York, NY (catalog)
2011 Are you land or water? in Thing Tang Trash: Up-cycling in Contemporary Ceramics,
West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, Bergen, Norway (catalog)
2011 Mine (i hear you unclip me) in Overthrown, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO (catalog)
2011 Howling Room in Lerets Magi: Ceramics in Contemporary Art, gl Holtegaard, Denmark (catalog)
2010 Pretty Young Things, Lacoste Gallery, Concord, MA
2009 Drawn in A.I.R., International Artists in Residence Exhibition, Vallauris, Vallauris, France
2009 Rift in Possibilities and Losses: Transitions in Clay, Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art
2009 (mima), Middlesbrough, UK (catalog)
2009 Playing the Field, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2008 Salvage, Louisiana Artworks, New Orleans, LA (solo exhibition)
2008 Sounding Retreat, Washington State University, Pullman, WA (solo exhibition)
2008 Full and Spare: Ceramics in the 21st Century, Museum of Fine Arts, Florida State
University (catalog)
2007 Parting Favors in White Box satellite show, Arthaus Miami, Miami Beach, FL
2007 Roaming Tales in Mobile Structures, TechLab, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC
2007 Roaming Tales in Mobile Structures, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK (catalog)
2006 Ontario Craft Council Award Winners Exhibition, The Guildshop, Toronto, ON
2006 Cheh-ae Siah, Stride Gallery, Calgary, AB (solo exhibition)
2006 Contemporary Canadian Ceramics, Esplanade Art Gallery, Medicine Hat, AB (catalog)
2006 White Gold, Flow Gallery, London, UK
2006 From the North: Canadian Ceramics Today, The Clay Studio, Philadelphia, PA
2005 Taipei NCECA Exhibition, Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan
2005 The Conative Object, York Quay Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
2005 NCECA Clay National, Baltimore, MD (catalog)
2005 School’s Out!, NCECA Conference, Baltimore, MD
2005 30,000 +, Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, BC
2004 Languor, Lohin-Geduld Gallery, New York, NY
2004 Hot Clay, Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC (catalog)
2003 Selections I, Lohin-Geduld Gallery, New York, NY
2003 Radius of the Will, MFA Graduate Exhibition, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY
2003 NCECA Clay National, San Diego, CA (catalog)
2002 George E. Ohr National Arts Challenge, The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art, Biloxi, MS
2002 Craft Art Western New York 2002, Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY (catalog)
2002 Harbingers, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery at Artsite, Wellsville, NY
2002 Ontario Craft Council Awards Exhibition, Designers Walk, Toronto, ON
2001 1st World Ceramic Biennale 2001 Korea International Competition, Gyeonggi Prov, Korea
(catalog)
2001 Emerging Clay Artists, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, ON
2001 New Works from Sheridan College, Lafreniere & Pai Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Visiting Lecturer
2015 University of Manitoba, 1000 Miles Apart Conference, Winnipeg, MB
2015 Brantford Potters’ Guild, Brantford, ON
2014 Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
2014 Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
2013 Toronto Potters’ Guild, Toronto, ON
2013 Pine Tree Potters’ Guild, Aurora, ON
2012 Greenwich House Pottery, New York, NY
2012 School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2012 Hamilton and Region Potters’ Guild
2011 Making or Unmaking: Contexts in Contemporary Ceramics, symposium, Bergen, Norway
2011 SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY
2010 Bergen National Academy of the Arts, Bergen, Norway
2010 Concordia University, Montreal, QC
2009 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO
2009 Emerging Artist, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), Phoenix, AZ
2008 Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield, MI
2008 Washington State University, Pullman, WA
2008 Louisiana Artworks, New Orleans, LA
2007 University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA
2007 Camosun College, Victoria, BC
2006 Alberta College of Art & Design, Calgary, AB
2005 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2005 Royal College of Art, London, UK
2005 Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, NS
2005 Camosun College, Victoria, BC
2005 California State University, Long Beach, CA
2005 Fraser Valley Potters’ Guild, Surrey, BC
2003 Langara College, Vancouver, BC
2003 Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Vancouver, BC
2002 Silpakorn Fine Arts University, Bangkok, Thailand
Panels
2013 “Girls Just Want to Have Funds”, panel, The Rema Hort Mann Foundation, New York, NY
“Ceramic Approaches in Contemporary Art”, panel, Gardiner Museum, Toronto, ON
2011 “The Future of Ceramic Art”, panel, Archie Bray Foundation 60th Anniversary, Montana
2010 Chair, Appraisal Committee for PhD-equivalent candidate, Bergen National Academy of the
Arts
2009 Collaborator with Rita Wong, “forage/salvage”, video presentation for panel “Ec(h)opoetics of the Disfigured ‘Land’scape”, Belladonna: Feminist Poetics & Activism Gathering”,CUNY, NY
2010 Co-chair panel with Dr. Mary Drach McInnes, “Boundary-work: Collaborative and
Interdisciplinary Approaches”, National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), Phoenix, AZ
2010 Co-chair panel with Dr. Mary Drach McInnes, “A Question of Depth: Collaborative and
Interdisciplinary Approaches in Ceramics”, College Art Association Annual (CAA) Los Angeles, CA
2008 Mobile Structures Symposium, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK “Process Art & the Found Object,” panel, Louisiana Artworks, New Orleans, LA
2007 “Five Emerging Ceramic Artists Survey the Discipline”, panel, CAA Conference, New York, NY
2006 White Gold Porcelain Symposium, Royal College of Art, London, UK
2004 “Leaving it be: apathy, activism and ethnicity in contemporary practice”, panel, Powell StreetFestival, Vancouver, BC
2004 Facilitator, Dis/closure panel; Risk-Taking, panel, Hot Clay Symposium, Surrey Art Gallery,
Workshops
2014-15 FUSION Mentorship Workshop, (Exhibition at Craft Ontario Gallery), Toronto, ON
(curated final group exhibition at Craft Ontario, Toronto)
2011 Open Door, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine
2008 Survival Strategies, Louisiana Artworks, New Orleans, Louisiana
2004 Courting Risk, 1000 Miles Apart, University of Regina, SK Co-facilitator with Aruna Srivastiva, “Communicating Across and Through Difference”, Banff Centre, Intranation Residency, Banff, AB
2002 “Thrown and Altered Forms”, FUSION Ontario Clay and Glass Association, Toronto, ON (video produced)BC, Canada
Residences
2014 Antena Projects and Sarang Building, Artist in Residence, Yogyakarta, Indonesia (June/July)
2014 Watershed Summer Session, Watershed Centre for the Ceramic Arts, Maine (August)
2012 AIDAshed Residency, Association of Israel’s Decorative Arts/Watershed, Givat Haviva, Israel
2011 DIVA Residency, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark (Jan-Feb)
2011 Edge Artist in Residence for Bray 60th Anniversary, Archie Bray Foundation, Montana (June)
2009 The Berlin Residency for Ceramics, Pankow, Germany (July)
2009 A.I.R. Vallauris, Vallauris, France (June)
2008 Louisiana Artworks, New Orleans, LA (August)
2006 Medalta International Artist in Residency Program, Medicine Hat, AB (June)
2004 Intranation Residency, Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, AB (June/July)
Juries
2015 McKnight Artist Fellowships & Residencies, Minneapolis, MN
2008-15 ArtAxis (online artist network), http://www.artaxis.org/artist.htm
2008 “In Your Face”, Brown University/RISD Art Exhibition, Hillel Gallery, Providence, RI
2006 “Tea Party 2004”, Port Moody Arts Centre, Port Moody, BC
2006 BC Arts Council Scholarships/Awards, Victoria, BC
Grants and Awards
2014 Canada Council for the Arts – Visual Arts Research/Creation Grant
2014 Canada Council for the Arts – Travel Grant (Yogyakarta, Indonesia)
2014 Sheridan College Faculty Professional Development Grant, Oakville, ON
2012 Canada Council for the Arts– Visual Arts Research/Creation Grant
2010 Rhode Island School of Design – Professional Development Grant, Providence, RI
2010 Canada Council for the Arts – Visual Arts Research/Creation Grant
2009 Canada Council for the Arts – Travel Grant (Berlin, Germany)
2009 Rhode Island School of Design – Professional Development Grant, Providence, RI
2009 Rhode Island School of Design – Kyobo Grant (to team-teach with Art Historian Paola Demattè)
2006-09 Rhode Island School of Design – Faculty Conference Fund, Providence, RI
2006 Emily Carr Institute – Faculty Professional Development Grant, Vancouver, BC
2005 Canada Council for the Arts – Emerging Artist Grant
2004 Banff Centre for the Arts – MVA Intranation Residency, Banff, AB
2001-03 Alfred University – Graduate Fellowship, Alfred, NY
2002 Ontario Crafts Council – Ontario Crafts Council Scholarship, Toronto, ON
2001 1st World Ceramic Biennale – International Competition Award of Merit, Korea
2001 Sheridan College Craft and Design Graduate Exhibition – Best in Show, Oakville, ON
2001 Sheridan College – William and Mary Corcoran Craft Award, Oakville, ON
2001 Sheridan College – School of Crafts and Design Silver Medal, Oakville, ON
2001 Ontario Crafts Council – Kingcrafts/Lady Flavelle Award, Toronto, ON
2001 Ontario Crafts Council – Critical Writing Award, Toronto, ON
1999-01 Sheridan College – Betty Kantor Silent Night Award, Oakville, ON
1999-01 Sheridan College – Don McKinley Memorial Scholarship, Oakville, ON
1999 Sheridan College – Don Shields Student of Tomorrow Award, Oakville, ON
1999 FUSION Ontario Clay and Glass Association – Workshop Award, Oakville, ON
1998 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts – Work Study Scholarship, Deer Isle, ME
Interviews
2013 Royal Bank of Canada People’s Choice Awards, Gardiner Museum (online video)
2013 Exploring Chaos and Fragility: An Interview with Linda Sormin. Interviewer: Tracy
Teagarden, Shop Talk, Volume 6. Publisher: Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.
2012 Sheridan Voices, Sheridan Institute, Oakville, ON (online video)
2011 Kunstpausen, gl Holtegaard, Holte, Denmark (online video) Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
2007 Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC (online video)
Writing
2016 Sormin, Linda. “Are you land or water? Love notes to Buddhas.” Contemporary Clay and
Museum Culture. Eds. Christie Brown, Julian Stair and Clare Twomey. Surrey: Routledge.
2016Sormin, Linda. “In Conversation with Bruce Cochrane.” article in Studio Magazine, Spring/Summer (Vol. 11 No 1), pp 28-32.
2012 Sormin, Linda. “Are you land or water: love notes to buddhas.”, in Contemporary Essays
series, Ceramics in the Expanded Field (online journal, University of Westminster), September 2012.
2011 Sormin, Linda. “Boundary-work”, Interpreting Ceramics, Issue 12 (online UK journal), transcribed from CAA ’09: http://www.uwic.ac.uk/icrc/issue012/articles/07.htm
2009 Sormin, Linda. “forage/salvage”, a video conversation piece with poet Rita Wong.See: forage-salvage-2009 on YouTube in 3 parts. Part One: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJD2RFcsffw
2007 Sormin, Linda. “Courting Risk.” Interpreting Ceramics: Research Collaboration, Issue 9
(online UK journal): http://www.uwic.ac.uk/ICRC/issue009/articles/02.htm
2007 Sormin, Linda. “Ploen-nanofolk.” West Coast Line, Intranation Issue, Fall 2007, p. 60.
2004 Sormin, Linda. “Ceramics and Context.” Gailan Ngan exhibition publication,
Centre A Gallery, Vancouver, BC.
2004 Sormin, Linda. “Feature Artist” (photo), FUSION Magazine, Fall 2004.
2003 Sormin, Linda. “The Radius of the Will” (graduate thesis), Alfred University, Alfred, New York.
2002 Sormin, Linda. “2001 OCC Awards Winner Linda Sormin”, Ontario Craft, No. 13.
2001 Sormin, Linda. “Mark Pharis at Sheridan College”, FUSION Magazine, Vol. 25, No. 2.
2001Sormin, Linda. “Julia Galloway”, FUSION News Magazine, Spring issue, (co-authored with Victor Levin).
2001 Sormin, Linda. “Tanya Harrod on Contemporary British Crafts”, FUSION Magazine,
Vol. 25, #1.
2000 Sormin, Linda. “Foulem on Picasso”, FUSION News Magazine, November issue, (co-authored with Victor Levin).
Public Collections
Arizona State University Museum, Tempe, Arizona
Schein-Joseph Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred, New York
World Ceramic Exposition Permanent Collection, Gyeonggi Province, Korea
Educational History
2003 MFA, Ceramic Art, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
2001 Diploma, Ceramics, Sheridan College, Oakville, ON
1993 Bachelor of Arts, English Literature, Andrews University, Berrien Spring, MI
Teaching History
2016-present Associate Professor, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, Alfred, NY
2012-16 Professor, Head of Ceramics, Sheridan College, Craft + Design Program, Oakville, ON
2010-11 Associate Professor, Head of Ceramics, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2006-09 Assistant Professor, Graduate Coordinator, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2005-06 Assistant Professor, Head of Visual Arts, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC
2003-05 Assistant Professor, Head of Ceramics, Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, Vancouver, BC
2015 Dahn, Jo. New Directions in Ceramics: From Spectacle to Trace, Bloomsbury, pp. 2, 95-10.
2014 Whitney, Kathleen. “Verging on Collapse: Linda Sormin’s Installations.” Article in Ceramics Monthly, Dec, pp. 54-47.
2014 Larocque, Jean-Pierre and Victoria LeBlanc. Caméléon catalogue essay, Centre des arts visuels et Galerie McClure, Montréal, Québec, pp. 11-13, 56-69, 71.
2014 Held, Peter and Heather Sealy Lineberry. Crafting a Continuum: Rethinking
Contemporary Craft, Arizona State University Museum Press, pp. 20, 68-69.
2013 Tokita, Chiho. “Cups About Loss.” Article in FUSION Magazine.
2013 Teagarden, Tracy. “Exploring Chaos and Fragility: An Interview with Linda Sormin.” Interview in Shop Talk, Vol. 6., Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, pp. 120-129.
2013 Pollack, Maika. Medium as Metaphor. Exhibition catalogue essay, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York, NY, pp. 6, 54-60.
2012 Adamson, Glenn. “Slow Burn.” Exhibition essay for My voice changes when I speak your language, Jane Hartsook Gallery, New York, NY.
2012 Veiteberg, Jorunn. “Ting Tang Trash.” Exhibition essay in catalogue, West Norway Museum of Decorative Art, Bergen, Norway.
2011 Damsbo, Mads, Karen Harsbo & Alexander Tovborg (eds). Lerets Magi: Ceramics in
contemporary art, gl Holtegaard, Denmark
2011 Skov, Nanna. Article in Danish, Samfundsrefleksioner i ler, KUNSTEN.NU, d. 22, marts.
2011 Paterson, Liberty. Interview with curators of Lerets Magi: Keramik International
samtidskunst, gl Holtegaard publication, pp. 135-157.
2010 Adamson, Glenn. Essay in Possibilities and Losses: transitions in clay, British Crafts Council publication, in partnership with mima (Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art).
2009 Sikora, Linda. “Metaphysical Materiality”, Ceramic Review, Sept./Oct., Issue 239, pp. 46-49. Itinerary review of “Possibilities and Losses,” Sculpture, July/August, Vol. 28 No 5, p. 21.
2007 Hanaor, Ziggy. Breaking the Mould: New Approaches to Ceramics, Black Dog Publishing, pp. 37, 128-129.
2007 Long, Timothy. “Unearthing.” Mobile Structures: Dialogues Between Ceramics and
Architecture in Canadian Art catalog, pp. 8–19, Mackenzie Art Gallery.
2007 Gogarty, Amy. “A Bell Rings Out – Recollection, Architecture, and Ceramics at
The End of Modernity.” Mobile Structures catalog, pp. 38-47.
2007 Burisch, Nicole and Diana Sherlock. “Linda Sormin: Two Views”, Ceramics Art &
Perception; Issue 67, pp. 27-31.
2006 Hanessian, Holly. “Encountering Abundance: Multiplicity in Clay.” Ceramics Art &
Perception; Issue 63, pp. 9-12.
2006 Neeley, James. “Diverse Ceramics.” Medicine Hat News, June 2, A4.
2006 Sikora, Linda. “Metaphysical Materiality.” Stride Gallery solo exhibition publication.
2006 Sherlock, Diana. “Ceramics reshape familiar forms.” Calgary Herald, April 8.
2006 Nicole Burisch. “Collected visions: Linda Sormin’s chaotic ceramic landscape”, FFWD Vol. 11 #17, April 6.
2006 Laurence, Robin. “Ceramics break the mould.” Article on ECI ceramics graduating student work, The Georgia Strait, May 18.
2005 Levin, Victor. “Linda Sormin.” Fusion Magazine (l. 29 No. 2 Spring).
2005 Mathur, Ashok. “Leaving it be.” Fuse Magazine (Vol. 28, No. 2).
2005 Ghaznavi, Corinna. “Conative Object”, York Quay Gallery (exhibition essay), January