Bio
Linda Eva Kourkoulis is an artist, educator, and researcher, born in New York City. She earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts and EdD. from Teachers College, Columbia University, studied at the Art Students League, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA. Linda is faculty and the Curriculum Coordinator for the Art Education Department at the School of Visual Arts, she taught visual arts in the NYC public school system, and printmaking at Teachers College. Linda maintains her printmaking studio and practice in New York and contributes to the field of art education with conference presentations, articles, and as a periodical reviewer.
Artist Statement
Imagery and metaphor related to the sea are recurrent themes in my work. 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.” With empathy for the octopus’ eternal search, I consider an internalized sense of nurturance that guides the search for a physical dwelling yet the psychical need remains paramount. Women generally curate a space that is physically and emotionally safe. I study the natural containers made by marine creatures to house, protect, be occupied and abandoned by fate or design, and integrate these into compositions that center the female body as an instrument of knowing.
The prints bring line, form, and color into play, initiated by the enduring reference to women’s bodies across cultures as containers or vessels, with the sensibility of a woman's body being embedded in experience with agency, power, and purpose. “The Carrying” is in part, a reference to Ada Limon's poem which addresses conception, loss, and grief. The cyclamen, known for surviving difficult conditions, grace the feet of the female figure lightly cradling a child. “The Bone Gatherer” remembers women across cultures and time who carry out the rituals for preparation, mourning and honoring the dead. The poppies emblazoned cadmium red with inkish blue black details, symbolize fertility, life, death, and remembrance.
Conceptualizing the boundaries of an enclosure, I also experiment with resins and make handmade paper combined with natural materials. Abstracted from observation of marine animals, I model creatures and then make molds for casting pieces with resin or wax to assemble upon artifact-like fragments or sculptural waves that imply a continuum of disintegration and renewal. Botanist and writer, Robin Wall Kimmerer emphasizes how the stories we choose to mold our behaviors have adaptive consequences on future generations. It is in this spirit that I continue my artistic research, seeking to create meaningful imagery of women as carriers of physical and spiritual life.
Exhibitions
2025 Color Me...Exhibit, Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT
Small Works Show: Microcosm, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY
2024 Community Art Benefit, KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY
PaperWorks Show: No Limits, Upstream Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY
Every Picture Tells a Story, Silvermine Gallery, New Canaan, CT
Make Way Exhibition, Curated by the Women Supporting Women Club,
SVA West Library, New York, NY
SVA West Library, New York, NY
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, Pierides 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/two person exhibitions
Awards
Myers Fund Art Prize, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY: 2008, 2009, 2013, 2018