Michael Lin (artist)

Michael Lin (Chinese Language: 林明弘) is a Taiwanese artist who works and lives in Brussels, Belgium and Shanghai, China. He was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1964, and grew up in Taiwan. He graduated from the Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design-Los Angeles in 1990, and obtained a MFA from the Art Center College of Design-Pasadena in the year of 1993.

Lin is associated with the generation of artists who are invested in the philosophy of Relational Aesthetics, but he also concerns himself with the regional cultural topography and works in the local vernacular. He started developing a reputation in the late 1990s for his use of vast expanse of bold flowers, a visual motif that is characteristic of the endemic culture of Taiwan. His floral patterns, imitating embroideries that would typically adorn Taiwanese pillows, are inspired by the vicissitudes in the domestic and political climates of Taiwan felt by the artist when he returned to the region after many years abroad. His repetitive and ostensibly simple floralscapes, highly attuned to the Taiwanese visual vocabulary, have, however, proved to be the most politically and culturally resonant portion of his work.

Lin's work has associations with architecture, as he conceives of his art not merely as a piece of flat canvas, but as a space that the viewers can interact with and within. This idiosyncratic artistic understanding is shown by many of his large-scale installation works, including Model Home: A Proposition by Michael Lin at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, and Grind at MoMA PS1 in New York.

Lin has exhibited at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, MoMA PS1 in New York, Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna, Kuntsmuseum in Lucern, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. . His solo shows include "Model Home: A Proposition by Michael Lin" (Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2012), “Michael Lin: A Modest Veil” (Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, 2010), and “Michael Lin” (Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, 2005). His works have been featured in a number of international exhibitions, including "If you were to live here"(5th Auckland Triennial, 2013), California-Pacific Triennial 2013, “The Spectacle of the Everyday” (Biennale de Lyon, France, 2009), Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art (Moscow, 2007), “Notre Histoire” (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2006), “Spring 2003″ (Palais de Tokyo, Site de Creation Contemporaine, Paris, 2003), “Bibliotherapy” ( Kuntsmuseum, Lucerne, 2003), “International:Liverpool Biennial” (Liverpool, 2002), 7th Istanbul Biennal (Istanbul, 2002), 49th Biennial of Venice, Taiwan Pavilion (Venice, 2001), etc.