Bio
Linda Eva Kourkoulis is an artist, art educator, and researcher. Born in NYC, she earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, and an EdD from Teachers College, Columbia University. Linda is a professor and Curriculum Coordinator for the Art Education Department at the School of Visual Arts, NYC. Her work has been exhibited by numerous galleries and included in collections in New York, Athens, Amsterdam, and Mexico City. Linda maintains her printmaking studio and practice in New York.
Artist Statement
The natural world evolves and adapts to maintain a continuum of life. I am fascinated by marine life that are able to achieve homeostasis under the starkest of life sustaining conditions, and contained in forms that are prehistoric in origin. The word for sea in Greek is thalassa, an onomatopoeia- it not only signifies but also describes the sound the sea makes, much like tracing the rhythm of the breath. We are embodied in our environment, with all things interconnected and mutually influential.
The artist Jack Whitten commented “the octopus once had a shell, but lost it over the millennia through evolution. Perpetually in search of a home, it settles in abandoned shells, cans, car tires, and underwater nooks and crannies using the dexterity of its tentacles to build its watery residence––what Whitten called “octopus architecture.”
My work explores the iconic relationship between consciousness, memory, and lived experience; at once interconnected and charged with vivid, emotional associations, yet intangible and elusive. Memory can be as elusive as breathing without being aware of the process or as perfunctory as recollecting the calendar date. Memory may only present itself to our conscious mind because it has been coaxed to the surface by an associative thought, a sensory stimulus, or by interaction with another person. Memory might describe our perception of structure like a container known only to the inhabitant.
I study vessels made by sea creatures, creating variations on these forms to explore the concept of an active, embodied, space with boundless energy, agential and in constant flux. Through my work I seek to better understand our relationship to the earth, each other, and ourselves by recognizing the natural world as an instrument of knowing, to be cared for and respected.
Exhibitions
2024 Every Picture Tells a Story, Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT
Enduring: Small Works Show, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY
2023 Pushing the Envelope, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY
Sixty Square Inches XX, Purdue Galleries, Purdue University, IN
Small Works: Personal Search, juried exhibit, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY
2022 New Members Exhibition, Silvermine Gallery, 1037 Silvermine Rd, New Canaan, CT
Guild Summer Salon, Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT
2021 She is Rising, Art Benefit by LiveGirl, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
Annual Members Show, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
Guild Summer Salon, Silvermine Gallery, 1037 Silvermine Rd, New Canaan, CT
2020 Faculty Biennial 2020, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, New York, NY
2019 Friends of Pleiades Annual Invitational Show, Pleiades Gallery, New York, NY
Coming Home: Alumni Exhibition, juried exhibition, Macy Gallery,
Fluid Perimeters: Myers Art Prizes, juror: Jennifer Mock, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, New York
2018 Small Works Show, Invitational Exhibition, Pleiades Gallery, New York, NY
2014 Both Sides Now, Faculty Exhibition, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, New York
2013 Equilibrium, Myers Art Prize Exhibition, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, NY
2012 Size Matters, NRCA Annual Juried Exhibition, Rotunda Gallery, New Rochelle, NY
2011 Subtitled, curated by Maurizio Pellegrin, 251 E. 110th Street, New York, NY
2010 Media Loft +, ArtsFest 2010, Media Loft Gallery, New Rochelle, NY
Studio Practices, juried exhibition curated by G. Sullivan, Macy Gallery, NY
2009 Myers Art Prize Exhibition, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, New York
2008 Myers Art Prize Exhibition, Macy Gallery, Teachers College, New York
2007 Ceramics, Printmaking and Photography Exhibition, Macy Gallery, NY
2006 Nature’s Motion, Kirkland Art Center, Clinton, NY
Westchester Biennial 2006, Castle Gallery, New Rochelle, NY
2005 Printing Show: Lithography & Silkscreen, Macy Gallery, Teachers College
Macy 55, Macy Gallery, Teachers College curated by Maurizio Pellegrin
2004 Dimokritos Gallery, Athens Greece*
2003 Group Exhibition, Dimokritos Gallery, Athens, Greece
2002 Dimokritos Gallery, Athens Greece*
2000 Group Exhibition, Ernest Schiller Gallery, Salamina, Greece
1999-2000 Theognis Gallery, Megara, Bougainvillia Gallery, Mykonos, Matoyiannia Center,
Mykonos, Pieridi Gallery, Athens; Lembesi Exhibition Hall, Salamina; Kalikourthi Gallery, Aegina,
Greece; exhibitions sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Culture: curated by M. Eleftheriou
1998 Ernest Schiller Gallery, Salamina, Greece*
Bougainvillia Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
1994 El Rio Del Tiempo mural, Guadalajara Book Fair, Mexico
Day of the Dead, group show, Carole LaRoche Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
*denotes solo exhibition
Awards
Myers Fund Art Prize, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY: 2008, 2009, 2013, 2018