Murray Whyte, December 16th 2021
At Mass MoCA, ceramic art proves its power
"Linda Sormin’s tangle of jagged sheet metal, video screens, iron pipe and vibrant clay and ceramic forms make a good case; it’s a chaotic amalgam of material and form so ragged and violent it looks like the aftermath of a natural disaster. I like what it’s saying: Tear it down, start again. The rules have changed."
Janet Koplos, March 24th 2022
Symbol of Substance : "Ceramics in the Expanded Field" at MASS MoCA
"The most impressive work in the show is Linda Sormin’s gargantuan agglomeration of tangled clay tubes, numerous video screens of varying size, a section of a spiral staircase, a dragon head used in Chinese festival dances, and detritus, arcing through the air within and around a zigzag metal framework. Though static, the form suggests exuberant motion, like a whiplashing fire hose. The creation might seem at first apocalyptic, a triumph of disorder; to the contrary, its title, Stream (2020–21), highlights the video images of flowing water and abstract patterns as well as the sculpture’s overall fluid aerial configuration, recalling the acrobatics of flying dragons in Chinese myth and art."
Jennifer Huberdeau, October 15th 2021
'Ceramics in the Expanded Field' artists explore intersection of history, culture, identity through clay
"In Linda Sormin's latest work, 'Stream,' a site-specific installation created for the exhibition, metal poles and scaffolding climb the two-story gallery space, reaching upwards as they intertwine with large ceramic pieces intricately and carefully placed by the artist. Woven in the mesh of metal and ceramics are video monitors, filled with images and sounds of water, of streams, of dripping water - all on loops."
Video interview, October 2021
Thoughts and process behind "Stream," Linda Sormin's ceramic and mixed media installation at MASS MoCA - currently on view in the "Ceramics in the Expanded Field" exhibition curated by Susan Cross.
Mary-Beth Laviolette, Fall 2022-23
A Distinctly Canadian Ethos
"The work of Sormin, Payce and Ostrom confidently amplifies Greenhalgh's own stated mission 'to show ceramic is a thing in itself.'4 A thingness expressed by Sormin's intertwining sculptural forms, Payce's pots of optical illusion or Ostrom's domestic pottery rich in history and ornamentation. Seen together, the artists' works bring to mind Greenhalgh's own comment about how 'you think Canada is the most modest country in the world because it is sitting atop the loudest country in the world.'"
Kim Lulashnyk, Volume 42 Number 1
Linda Sormin : Fierce Passengers
"Sormin sees herself as a sculpture and installation artist who uses ceramics as her sculptural medium; and clay, that 'unruly, unkempt' material medium, as a metaphor for themes that inform her work - transition, migration, temporality, and loss."
Beatrice Helman, Spring 2019
Interview with Linda Sormin
"Do you have a first memory of making an object or a drawing?"
"When I was nine, I attended a one-room school out on Atherley, a country road near Orillia, Ontario. When we weren’t outside making leaf/snow/tree forts or little boats to float down the nearby stream, I was constantly drawing and making animal figures and bowls out of plasticine. At recess, we’d pile up our wooden desks like mountain ranges, turn out the lights, climb to the top of the desk pile, sit on our haunches and howl like wolves. As a wolf, I always kept my plasticine bowls with me. That seemed like a natural thing to do."