Our Founder, Linda Sibio

Linda Carmella Sibio (b. 1953, Montgomery, West Virginia) is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, performer, and educator based in Joshua Tree, California. Diagnosed with schizophrenia while earning her BFA in painting from Ohio University (1977), Sibio has developed a practice rooted in lived experience, embracing fragmentation and “psychotic” thinking patterns as generative methodologies across visual art, performance, and pedagogy. In the 1980s, she studied acting with Eric Morris and performance with Rachel Rosenthal in Hollywood. Her work has been supported by major grants and awards, including those from the Lannan Foundation, the Rockefeller MAP Fund, the Wynn Newhouse Award, and the Tree of Life Award. Her artwork is held in the VSA permanent collection at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Sibio has performed at the Walker Art Center, Franklin Furnace, and Highways Performance Space, and has presented solo exhibitions at Track 16 Gallery and Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles and Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York.