Linder Sterling: сut, сollage, сonquer

Linder: Danger Came Smiling – a retrospective exhibition exploring five decades of Linder Sterling’s radical art. Manchester punk, iconic photomontages, works balancing on the edge of desire and grotesque—her visual language deconstructs what we traditionally perceive as feminine, glamorous, and desirable.
Linder started with posters and flyers for Manchester’s punk scene in the 1970s. In her hands, the scalpel replaced the brush—she literally cut out images from women's magazines, pornography, and advertising, assembling them into new narratives. From the Orgasm Addict cover for Buzzcocks to collages of hyper-feminized aesthetics, her work examines how glamour is transformed, referencing burlesque, bodybuilding, drag culture, and even religious iconography. Her practice is both destruction and recomposition, a way to expose the manipulation of the female image.

Linder’s works balance between allure and unsettling hyperbole.