Linda Sikora (b. 1960) is a ceramic artist who hails from Canada and currently lives in Alfred Station, NY, where she teaches at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her porcelain jars and teapots are known for their incredible form and polychrome surfaces. Sikora states, "Jars and teapots are at the front edge of my recent inquiry. The teapot, more demanding of specific engineering particular to its function, and the jar, a generous canvas, its criteria of containment more permissive. How I imagine, and make, and reflect on each piece shapes the atmosphere it generates and influences how it becomes positioned in cultural space. I am interested in pottery form for its familiarity and congeniality; its ability to disappear into private/personal activities and places. But, this is only one aspect of the work which, through its intelligence of color, form and stance can also excite/awaken attention and thereby reflect back to the viewer their own imagination. Invisible or visible, or oscillating back and forth between these states, the pots foster both attention and inattention. They are insistently existent, and continuously stir."
Sikora received her diploma of Fine Arts from David Thompson University Center, Nelson, British Columbia and holds a B.F.A. from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax. She also received her M.F.A. from the University of Minnesota. Sikora's work can be found in numerous collections, among them the Arkansas Arts Center, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Northern Clay Center.
