LINDA STEIN
Artist Statement
Linda Stein–an artist--‐‑activist, lecturer, performer, video artist–currently has two traveling exhibitions and events in progress. One is her solo catalogued exhibition, The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein, traveling the country since 2010, accompanied by her feminist lecture: “The Chance to be Brave, The Courage to Dare.” The second traveling event is Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females: Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. She is represented by Flomenhaft Gallery in Chelsea Manhattan and her archives are at Smith College. Stein is Founding President of the non--‐‑profit 501(c) (3) corporation, Have Art: Will Travel! Her current art addresses core issues of empowerment, by focusing on the continuum between masculinity and femininity, oppression and bullying.
This gender--‐‑bending work began a year after running for a full day from the falling Twin Towers in the Ground Zero area. This year the National Association of Women Artists (NAWA) has awarded Stein as the 2016 Artist Honoree for Commitment to Arts and Culture. “My goal as an artist,” Stein says, “is to use my art to transform social consciousness and promote activism for gender justice. With my androgynous forms I invite the viewer to seek diversity in unpredictable ways, to ‘try on’ new personal avatars and self-definitions, knowing that every new experience changes the brain’s structure and inspires each of us toward a more authentic self.”