Artist Biography
Lin Tianmiao (b. 1961, Taiyuan, China, based in Beijing, China) incorporates craft-based methods, such as weaving and embroidery, into her practice to explore notions of identity, gender, human relationships and the female body. Through painting, sculpture, mixed-media installation and video, she creates visual systems that connect her personal experiences with broader social and ideological concerns. Since the 1990s, she has been recognised as one of the leading Chinese artists on the international scene.
After living in New York where she experienced the height of experimental art movements and non-profit spaces, Lin returned to Beijing in the mid-1990s amid heavy government censorship over artistic expression. She joined several other artists in promoting “apartment art”, the practice of opening one’s studio or home for intimate pop-up exhibitions. In renowned large-scale installations such as The Proliferation of Thread Winding (1995), Bound and Unbound (1997) and Chatting (2004), Lin laboriously wraps various forms such as domestic objects and human figures in thread, obscuring their perceived functions and suggesting their ability to metamorphosise. Commonly associated with domestic labour and care, thread is used by the artist as a means for questioning how bodies and acts of labour are shaped and constrained.
Lin obtained her BFA from Capital Normal University, Beijing in 1984 and furthered her education at the Art Students League of New York in 1989. Her work is found in major collections including Brooklyn Museum, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Fukuoka Asian Art Museum; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Hong Kong Museum of Art; Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Seoul; M+, Hong Kong; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Art Museum of China, Beijing; National Museum of Australia, Canberra; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Seattle Art Museum; Singapore Art Museum; and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing.
Notable exhibitions include The Writings of Today are a Promise for Tomorrow (2024), Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art, Diriyah; Trace - Formations of Likeness (2023), Haus der Kunst, Munich; Stepping Out! (2023), Museum der Moderne Salzburg; Empowerment (2022), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; A Window Suddenly Opens (2022), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; The Allure of Matter (2019), Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Systems (2018), Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai; Art and China after 1989 (2018), Guggenheim Bilbao; Art and China after 1989 (2018), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and Stampede (2018), Denver Art Museum. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including the 3rd Setouchi Triennale (2016), Kagawa; Fiber Visions (2013), 1st Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art; A Grain of Dust A Drop of Water (2004), 5th Gwangju Biennale; 2nd Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (2003), Niigata; Imagined Workshop (2002), 2nd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale; Pause (2002), 4th Gwangju Biennale; Urban Creation (2002), 4th Shanghai Biennale; and On Life, Beauty, Translations and Other Difficulties (1997), 5th Istanbul Biennale.
Lin had her residency at the STPI Workshop in 2005, resulting in the exhibition Focus on Paper (2007) and the Asia Society Portfolio (2006)—a set of ten prints by leading Asian artists to mark both a decade of the Asian Society’s exhibition and artist commission programme, and the fiftieth anniversary of the Society’s founding.