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Linda Cordell’s Unsettling, Humorous Ceramic Sculptures

Linda Cordell’s ceramic sculptures offer familiar creatures and figures, yet many carry a darker edge. Much of Cordell’s work depicts the animal kingdom, in varying states of tension or external conflict. Most sculptures carry the natural color of porcelain, with pops of bright hues that mark points of interest (or impact, depending on the piece).

Linda Cordell’s ceramic sculptures offer familiar creatures and figures, yet many carry a darker edge. Much of Cordell’s work depicts the animal kingdom, in varying states of tension or external conflict. Most sculptures carry the natural color of porcelain, with pops of bright hues that mark points of interest (or impact, depending on the piece).

“Socially awkward and full of repressed anger, I anesthetize myself spending mindless hours carving detailed texture on humorous and/or uncomfortable animal sculptures,” she says. “A child of the revisionist era, my work reinterprets the figurine enabling animals to break the chains of cuteness and noble savagery. An appreciation of the ridiculous, a love of beauty and skilled craftsmanship, and the belief that domestic objects are social propaganda all contribute to my work.”

Cordell is a graduate of both New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in New York and Louisiana State University. Since graduating, she has been a resident and has been exhibited in arts institutions across the world.

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