Monika Lin was born in Manhattan NY, USA. She has lived in Shanghai since 2006. Her work deals primarily with social-political themes emphasizing cultural constructs, the Anthropocene, relationality and materiality. Her work is cross-disciplinary, incorporating textual, visual, and social intervention practices.
Lin holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and an MA in Interactive Media Arts from the Tisch School of the Arts in NYC and has attended residencies in San Francisco, Jingdezhen, Beijing, Chengdu, and Madrid. Monika teaches visual art at NYU Shanghai and previously at the San Francisco and the Kansas City Art Institutes. She conducts ongoing lectures and workshops at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai.
Exhibitions include shows at the Power Station of Art (Shanghai Biennale 2021), Sichuan Fine Art Institute in Chongqing, China, Central Booking Gallery, NYC; the Power Station of Art, Art Labor Gallery, OV Gallery, and the Fine Art Museum in Shanghai; the San Francisco Performance Art Institute and Toomey Tourell Fine Art in San Francisco; the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall in Taibei; and the Asia Arts Initiative in Philadelphia.
Education
2021 MA, Interactive Media Arts, NYU, NY
2017 MFA, School of Visual Arts, NY, NY
1997 BFA, Mills College, Oakland, CA
1986-89 College of Creative Studies, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA
Residencies, Grants and Projects
2024
Printmaking by the People, Mural Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Untitled printmaking project, Social Sensibility, Bernard Controls, Beijing, China
2022
Public Art Grant, China Academy of Art and the Hangzhou Park, Public Art Sculpture installed in Qiandaohu, China
2021
Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China
2020
Chengdu City Art Residency and Sculpture Grant, Chengdu, China
2019
Global Research Initiative Fellowship, NYU Madrid
2017
Public Art Grant, China Academy of Art and the City Art Council of Nanjing, installed in Nanjing, China
2014
Pottery Workshop, Jingdezhen, China
2012
Performance Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
Long-Term Projects
2023- “Pollinator,” Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2022- Natural Materials Lab, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai China
2021- “Names” and “Story Quilt,” Yangling Dementia Center, Shanghai, China
The Psychogeography of Space
Mapping the City, Community-based (Shanghai and Beijing)
2019- ReMaker Space, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai China
2018- Zaanheh Project, member and website designer, NYU Shanghai
2018- “Locating the Self,” community-based (greater Shanghai)
2015- “Identity and Place,” community-based (greater Shanghai)
2006- Seaweed Salad Editions, artist, director, publisher
(https://www.seaweedsaladeditions.com)
Publication list:
2023: “Thanks,” collaboration with David Perry
2020: “Ghosts, City, Sea,” Wang Yin
2017, “Weeds,” Lu Xun
“The China Eastern Railway,” Han Bo
2015, “Expat Taxes,” David Perry
2012, “The Picky Eater’s Cookbook,” Illustrator
2011, “Sasha the Stubborn Sleeper,” Illustrator
2010, “Small Offerings,” Monika Lin, David Perry, Sawako Nakayasu
“Child Palace” Monika Lin, David Perry, Nina Mehta-Young
“Mika the Picky Eater,” Illustrator
Select Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
2017
From the Bones of the Fish, Central Booking Gallery, NY, NY
2012
Tenthousand, Performance Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2010
Medusa, Art Labor Space, Shanghai China
2010
Small Offerings, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
Child Palace, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China
2005
Double Happiness, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, SF, CA
2003
Red Shoes, Kidder Smith Gallery, Boston, MA
2002
Untitled Exhibition, Dennis Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2001
New Work, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
Untitled Exhibition, Light Box Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2000
Objects and Icons, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, SF, CA
1999
Blue Lotus, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, SFan Francisco CA
1998
Untitled Exhibition, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, SF CA
Select Group Exhibitions
2024
At the Edge of Lightness and Dark, CFEVA, Philadelphia, PA
2023
Firefly, Qiandaohu, China
No-Mad – Rooted in Becoming, Konzepthauslaboratorium, Thun, Switzerland
2022
Color of Light 2, Public Sculpture, Qiandaohu, China
2021
Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China
Soft City 2.0, Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Qongqing, China
Ponds Among Ponds, ICA Gallery, NYU Shanghai, China
Monochrome Abstraction, Ruili Taidu Center, Taizhou, China
Antonyms, Goethe Center, Shanghai, China
2020
Chengdu Sculpture Park Installation (August, 2020)
International Exhibition, Songyang 789 Art Center, Songyang, China
2019
CCIEU group exhibition, Budapest, Hungary
CCIEU group exhibition, Brussels, Belgium
2018
Growth, Art Labor Gallery, China
Color of Light, Public Sculpture, Nanjing, China
International Art Exhibition, Changsha, China
2017
To Be Like Water?, Why Why Art Center, Hangzhou, China
“On starting another conversation,” Why Why Art Space, Nanjing, China
erutuF, Why Why Art Space, Nanjing, China
10th year anniversary exhibition, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China
Time Share, Project Space, Brooklyn, NY
Untitled group exhibition, Art Labor Gallery
2016
Modern Metropolis, Power Station of Art, Shanghai China
Lost Opportunities?, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China
Intimate Transgressions, 4, Chiang Kai Shek Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
Struggle, San Wei Art Center, Shanghai, China
Intimate Transgressions 3, Hangzhou Library, Hangzhou, China
2015
Why Why Art Inaugural exhibition, Shanghai, China
Shanghai Stories, PSA, Shanghai
Intimate Transgressions 2, Art Space, Beijing, China
Untitled Exhibition, Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China
2014
Asia Arts Initiative, Philadelphia, PA
What if Objects Could Talk?, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
2013
Excavating Layers, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, CA
Filter the Public, Shanghai World Financial Center, Shanghai, China
Project Flow, Gramercy Gallery, New York, NY
Learning from the Literati 4, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
She Views Herself 4, Air France, Esplanade des Invalides, Paris, France
2012
Learning from the Literati 3, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
She Views Herself 1, Oddo & Cie Gallery, Paris, France
Cold Comfort, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
2011
Refracted Realities, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
Collective Consciousness, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
The Birth of a Myth – a State of Alertness, Yongkang Lu Art, Shanghai, China
Red, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2010
Shifting Definitions, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
Centennial Celebration of Women in Art, Shanghai Fine Art Museum,
Shanghai China
2nd Impressions, Art Labor 2.0, Shanghai, China
Re-visioning History, OV Gallery, Shanghai, China
2008
The New Mainstream II, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona
Ten, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, SF, CA
Bridge Art Fair New York, NY
2007
Scope Miami, Miami, Florida
Bridge Art Fair, London, Great Britain
Art Beijing, Beijing, China
2005
Scope Miami, Miami, Florida
2004
Self Portrait, IUN Gallery for Contemporary Art, Gary, Indiana
2002
Kidder Smith Gallery, Boston, MA
2001
WaxWorks, Gwenda Jay Addington, Chicago, IL
2000
An American Palette, Sebastapol Center for the Arts, Sebastapol, CA
The Art of the Monotype, Toomey Tourell Fine Art, SF, CA
1999
Encaustic Works 1999, Watermark Cargo Gallery, Kingston, NY
69th Annual Juried Exhibition, National Art League, New York, NY
Post-Postcard, Four Walls, San Francisco, CA
Lure, San Francisco State University, Cesar Chavez Gallery, UCSF, SF, CA
Teaching
2023- Associate Arts Professor of Visual Arts, NYU Shanghai, NYU Shanghai
2020-23 Assistant Arts Professor of Visual Arts, NYU Shanghai, NYU Shanghai
2019- Area Head of Arts, NYU Shanghai, NYU Shanghai
2017-20 Clinical Assistant Professor of Arts, NYU Shanghai, NYU Shanghai
2015-17 Owner, Director, Instructor, Art Station 20 Studio Art School/Colorbox Creative Arts Center
2008-14 Instructor, Fine Arts, Expat Learning Center, Shanghai
2014 Summer Instructor, San Francisco Art Institute
2013- Educational Lecturer and Workshop Instructor, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, China
2002-05 Lecturer, painting, drawing, and book arts KCAI, Kansas City, Mo
Select Lectures and Workshops
2021
Talk and Workshop, Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China
Sichuan Fine Art Institute, Chongqing, China
Peninsula Art Museum, Weihai, China
Pottery Workshop Education Center, Jindezhen, China
2020
Artist Talk, Royal Asiatic Society, Shanghai
Ted X NYU
Artist Talk, Power Station of Art, Shanghai
Artist Talk, Kansas City Art Institute, KC, MO
Artist Talk, Out of Black, Singapore
Artist Talk, US Chamber of Commerce, Shanghai
2019
Artist Talk, MediaLab, Madrid
Artist Talk, Zhao Jiu, CCTV
Artist Talk, M-Talks, M on the Bund
Artist Talk, Shanghai Literary Festival
2018
Lecture and Workshop Series, PSA, China
Artist Talk, Social Art Practice in China, School of Visual Arts, NYC
Artist Talk, Asia Pacific Writers and Translators, Bali
2017
Artist Talk and Workshop, Museum of Chinese in America, NY, NY
Artist Talk and Workshop, Manhattan Chinatown Community Center, NY, NY
Workshop, Jiaotong University, Shanghai, China
2016
Artist Talk, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
2015
Artist Talk, NYU Shanghai, Shanghai, China
2013-14
Visiting Artist, Shanghai Community International School, Shanghai
2010
Artist Talk, Shanghai Literary Festival
Other Related Experience
2011-
Institutional Collaborations: Power Station of Art, Rockbund Art Museum,
Minsheng Museum, and K11 Art Mall, Shanghai, China
2010
Panelist, “International Perspectives on the Legacy of American Feminist Art and Art Histories,” CAA conference, Chicago, Il
Curator, “Shanghailand: Countercurrents in the Mainstream,” Toomey Tourell Fine Art, San Francisco, CA
2006-08
Art Director, iUniverse Book Press, Shanghai China
1996-2001
Director, Nika Gallery Arts Collective, San Francisco, CA
Select Press
The (Un)folding of the (Un)familiar, catalogue essay for Colette Fu, Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia, PA
60 Wrd/Min Art Critic, Lori Waxman, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
“Ravelling,” Performing in the Pandemic: The COVID-19 chronicles of Asian mother Artists, Performing Ethos: An International Journal of Ethics in Theater& Performance, Volume 12, Ruchika Wason Singh, et al
Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss
https://www.extractionart.org/news/2021/3/8/featured-artist-monika-lin
Ponds Among Ponds: an exhibition of threshold behavior & nested life.
http://annasophiespringer.net/projects/#1
Featured artist, Su Hui’s Picture of the Turning Sphere, Jen Bervin.
https://vimeo.com/449827993
Artforum review, Growth. Todd Meyers. https://www.artforum.com/picks/growth-76615
The Art of Plastic,
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201901/23/WS5c47f679a3106c65c34e60c8.html
“So steht es um die Kunstfreiheit in China” Lena Held.
https://www.br.de/nachrichten/kultur/kunstfreiheit-in-china-zhao-chuan-grass-stage,RjnRqnr?fbclid=IwAR1lYubHzKDoDR1Do0-ucYAETD8beacfx8HtIqog6ynyjw4Q-h2V-hhpskM
Monika Lin Wants a Return to…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monika-lin-wants-a- return-to-sensuality-wildness-and_us_599c3135e4b0521e90cfb52d
Power of the Word: https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/the-power-of-the-word- calligraphy-in-contemporary-chinese-art/
From the Bones of the Fish: https://plus.google.com/118144688654222487697
Painted into a Corner: http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/600868.shtml
Painted into a corner, Nick Muzyczka. https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/600868.shtml
Small Offerings: https://www.sfweekly.com/calendar/lin-da-linda-pretty/
Small Offerings. Review by DeWitt Cheng. https://www.artbusiness.com/1open/firstth0609.html
Chinese New Art, Michael Nau. https://www.chinesenewart.com/chinese-artists16/monikalin.htm
Landmines in the garden of the Literati, Luise Guest. http://anartteacherinchina.blogspot.com/2013/05/landmines-in-gardens-of-literati.html
Half the Sky: http://chinainfocus.net/half-the-sky-a-female-artist-in-china/
Writing a Way Home, Annie Zhang. https://honisoit.com/2018/05/writing-a-way-home/
World of Creativity, Frederik Hare
Troost Colors, Ben Paynter. https://www.thepitchkc.com/tag/monika-lin/