Linda Sok

Image by Jessica Maurer. Image courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Linda Sok is an Australian artist of Cambodian heritage whose practice is grounded in weaving. Her work deals with diaspora, displacement and intergenerational trauma. She describes her Australian upbringing as "a fracture through which I can begin to unwind and untangle personal and historical traumas." In her words, "distance and absence become inciting moments through which my work can emerge as acts of weaving, rituals, and material translations." She works in silk, gold leaf, fibre and sculptural form, and draws on Cambodian textile traditions such as the pidan, a woven silk hanging.

Linda holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) from UNSW Art & Design, where she received the University Medal. In 2025 she completed a Master of Fine Art in Sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design as a RISD Fellow. Her awards include the Dorner Prize (RISD Museum) and the Monash Room Emerging Artist Prize, both in 2024, was a finalist for the Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize in 2023, and the Churchie Emerging Art Prize in 2022. She has held residencies at the NARS Foundation and Textile Arts Center in New York, FT Gallery in Phnom Penh and the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Nebraska. Recent solo exhibitions include Warped Archive at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center and Reincarnations of an altar cloth at Campbelltown Arts Centre. In 2026 she is exhibiting in Primavera 2026 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.

Craft became central to Linda's practice while she was researching residencies. "I found one that would facilitate learning a number of textile techniques and immerse me in an environment where all the other artists were also textile artists," she says. "Up until that point, I was interested in craft practices, particularly Cambodian craft practices, but it still felt like such a difficult skill to learn without being taught it." At the time, Covid made learning in person even harder. "Finding this residency, thinking through the reasons why it suited my practice, and getting accepted, was when I realised craft was going to drastically impact the way I conceived of my work. Instead of working with materials other artisans had made, I was now making my own."

Linda is optimistic about the future of craft in Australia. "I think that there is growing recognition and appreciation for it. Textiles and crafts have such a long and ancient history that it is often forgotten, disregarded, and taken for granted, so it's great to see organisations like the Australian Tapestry Workshop, Textile Art Museum Australia, and Wangaratta Art Gallery really championing the support of these practices."

For Linda, the past is the way forward: “"It is important to look back, at the ancient practices that have developed over time, in order to understand how to move into the future, to preserve, protect, and persevere."

linda-sok.com | Instagram @lendasock | Primavera 2026 at MCA Australia