Eleen
Lin
Media:
Painting, Drawing
Studio Location:
LIC Art Center
Room/Studio#
407
Website:
Artist Bio:
Eleen Lin (b. 1982, Taipei, Taiwan) is a New York–based artist whose practice is shaped by her experience as a “third culture kid,” having been raised in Thailand and educated in the United Kingdom and the United States. Working at the intersection of multiple cultural frameworks, Lin draws from folklore, literature, and art history to construct layered, cross-cultural narratives that reflect the fluidity of identity in a globalized world.
Lin received a BA in Painting from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, in 2005, and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale School of Art in 2008. Her work has been exhibited in museums such as Queens Museum of Art, NY; Bronx Museum of Art, NY; Chazen Museum of Art, WI; Guangdong Museum of Art, China and Gwangju Museum of Art, Korea. She had several solo exhibitions including 456 Gallery, NY; Viterbo University Gallery, WI; Craddock-Terry Gallery, VA; Doris Ulmann Galleries, KY; Garrison Art Center, NY; Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, Gallery F-Stop, Thailand; and Srinakharinwirot University Gallery, Thailand. Lin’s work has also been featured in numerous group exhibitions throughout Taiwan, Austria, Germany, United Kingdom, Thailand, and the United States.
Her work can be found in collections around the world, including the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan; the International Baccalaureate Organization, United Kingdom; and the Jimenez-Colon Collection, United States. Lin has been the recipient of awards such as the Elizabeth Canfield Hicks Award from the Yale School of Art; the Queens Arts Fund; and the NYFA Immigrant Artist Project; and has participated in residencies including the Fountainhead Residency; Rancho Linda Vista; and the AIM program at the Bronx Museum of Art.
Lin is currently represented by C24 Gallery and lives and works in New York.
Artist Statement:
Eleen Lin finds inspiration at cultural intersections, drawing from her background as a “third culture kid.” Born in Taiwan and raised in Thailand with a Western education, her work cannibalizes cultural references, identities, folklore, and literature, creating contemporized cross-cultural narratives that reflect the complexities of a globalized world.
Influenced by her experience living between cultures, Lin investigates the limitations of translation and representation across different cultural and temporal contexts. Her paintings explore memory and diasporic experience, examining how meaning shifts, fragments, and reforms as it moves between languages, histories, and geographies.
Her ongoing Mythopoeia series draws from literary sources such as Moby-Dick, reimagining them through processes of mistranslation and free association. These works construct multivalent narratives that reflect both the instability and generative potential of interpretation. In the Pet Society series, Lin transforms the intimate and often mystical relationship between humans and animals into reflections on contemporary urban life, where pet ownership becomes a site of projection, desire, and emotional exchange.
Working through layered surfaces that combine acrylic, ink, and oil, Lin’s paintings function as a cumulative journal. They portray the erosion of cultural boundaries while also acknowledging the ways globalization brings disparate influences together, forming a shared yet unstable collective consciousness.
