In the age of cultural cannibalism where everything is brought together and rearranged to formulate new identities, I rearticulate folklores and literature into contemporized cross-cultural narratives. The multivalent reimagination explores the inadequacies of translation and representation within different cultures and eras, while also expressing ideas of diaspora, memory, and other means to understand the world. My paintings are a cumulative journal that portrays the loss of cultural boundaries but are also meant to celebrate how the globalized world brings us closer together to create a collective consciousness shared across cultural divides.
My current work that started in 2014 retells the story of Moby Dick. The cultural diversity of the crewmates, the segregation from society, the worldly journey, and the mysticism of sea travel; are closely related to my experience of being an immigrant. These works initially were inspired by the mistranslations in the Mandarin edition, free association and other interpretations were later incorporated to create new meanings. Like traveling through dream states, the narrative jumps and changes, vacillating between fact and fiction, unpacking the philosophical passages to create ambivalent images that reflect the nuance and complexity of our new age.
I mainly work with a mix of acrylic, ink, and oil mediums on canvas. The acrylic paint and ink are first applied, staining the raw canvas to create a watercolor and Chinese ink painting-like backdrop. Layers of transparent and opaque oil paints are then applied to break into the fluidity of the background, giving it a collage-like effect. Some of the surfaces even incorporate acrylic molding paste or thick impasto oil paints to further create a visual breakage. Parts of the painting are left with the original surface of raw canvas or linen to suggest maritime aesthetics.
These paintings are meant to reflect my current state of mind. Even though they take Moby Dick as an initial inspiration, the paintings relate to a lot of social and political conditions that we are experiencing. The recurring water theme in the works shows how everything is constantly in flux.
Born in Taiwan, grew up in Thailand, and spent her adulthood in England and the United States., Eleen Lin represents the third cultural kid who calls nowhere “home,” but is connected with multiple distinctive cultures. Lin succinctly summarizes our time as “the age of cultural cannibalism where everything is brought together and rearranged to formulate new identities.”
Lin began painting at a young age, and once she was living in Thailand, painting became a way of self-expression when she couldn’t speak the language. When she was studying in England, she delved into Chinese art history and ink paintings, eventually developing a style in which she lays oil paint on top of acrylics. Acrylic paints create a background similar to watercolor and Chinese ink painting, while the oil paints on top break the backdrop’s fluidity.
In the Pet Society series Lin transformed the mystical intimacies between man and animal to present complex urbanities’ obsession with pet ownerships. Weaving together past stories with imageries in our contemporary world, her canvas captures a place where parallel universes come together.
Her current series, titled Mythopoeia, is inspired by American writer Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick(1851), which is about Captain Ahab’s vengeful hunt of Moby Dick, or the white whale. Setting aside the impactful symbolism and moral established by the novel, Eleen delves into aspects of story that are reminiscent of her experience as an immigrant artist: the cultural diversity of the crew-mates, the segregation from society, and the mystic journey from America to Asia. After comparing the original English novel with different versions of Chinese translation, Eleen retells the quintessential American literature through different cultural lenses, where fragments of cultural signifiers are brought together, and mistranslation due to cultural indifferences and contemporary languages are highlighted. The multivalent reimagination explores the inadequacies of translation and representation within different cultures and eras, while also expresses ideas of diaspora, memory, and other means to understand the world. Her paintings are a cumulative journal that portrays the loss of cultural boundaries but are also meant to celebrate how the globalized world brings us closer together to create a collective consciousness shared across cultural divides.
Eleen graduated from Yale University School of Art with a MFA in painting and printmaking in 2008 prior to obtaining a BA in painting from Slade School of Fine Art from University College London in 2005. She has been exhibited in Austria, Thailand, Taiwan, Germany, England, China, and the United States. Her works are collected by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Jimenez-Colon Collection (USA), and International Baccalaureate Organization (UK), among others. Currently, she lives and works in New York.
EDUCATION
2008 MFA, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
2005 BFA, Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, London, United Kingdom
2003 SOCRATES Exchange Program, Academy of Fine Art, Vienna, Austria
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
Found in Translation, 456 Gallery, New York, NY
Dick Moby, Viterbo University Gallery, La Cross, WI
2016
Lost in Transitions, Craddock-Terry Gallery, Lynchburg, VA
Lost in Transitions, Doris Ulmann Galleries – Berea College, Berea, KY
2014
Third Cultural World, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY
2006
Modern Utopia, Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
2005
Hybrid World, Gallery F-Stop, Bangkok, Thailand
2004
Ectoplasm, Srinakharinwirot University Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022
Mythodical: Works by Eleen Lin and Tammie Rubin, C24 Gallery, New York, NY
2008
I-Ling Eleen Lin and Hayv Kahraman, Thierry Goldberg Projects, New York, NY
2003
I-Ling Eleen Lin and Tina Natsvlishvili, Gallery 543 m3, Academy of Fine Art, Vienna, Austria
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
In a Different Light, Rockefeller Capital Management, New York, NY
2021
Our Constellations: astral embraces and tactual consciousness, Emerson Dorsch Gallery, Miami, Fl
Old Mistresses, Tomato Mouse, New York, NY
2020
Solutions, Tomato Mouse, New York, NY
2019
Polychrome, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
2018
Seeing the World, Deutsche Bank 60 Wall Gallery, New York, NY
2017
The Moby Dick Project, Hewitt Art Gallery, New York, NY
Drifting, WMing Art – Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
Present Danger, Hewitt Art Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Borderless: In Perspective, Lite-Haus Galerie, Berlin, Germany
Group show featuring gallery artists, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
Immigrant Art Show, Office of New Americans, New York, NY
2015
Bronx Calling: The Third AIM Biennial, Bronx Museum of Art, New York, NY
(N)either (N)or, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI
Cool and Collected ’15, Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY
Face to Place, Deutsche Bank 60 Wall gallery, New York, NY
Face to Place, NYFA Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2014
No More Place, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ
Soul, Novella Gallery, New York, NY
Storytellers, Morean Arts Center, St. Petersburg, FL
2013
Bridging the Gap, La Guardia Community College Gallery, Long Island City, NY
Bridging the Gap, Flushing Town Hall, Flushing, NY
Off the Queensboro Bridge, Resobox Gallery, Long Island City, NY
Studio 34 Group Exhibition, Long Island City, NY
2013 Kaohsiung International Women’s Art Exhibition, Kaohsiung Women’s Center, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Natural Elements, ArtSpace 64, New York, NY
2012
Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY
Stratified Writings: International Female Art Stream Exhibition, 201 Art Gallery, Taichung, Taiwan
2011
East Meets West, Claypool-Young Art Gallery, Morehead, KY
Frame/Work, 567 Gallery, New York, NY
2010
Push/Pull, Dumbo Art Festival, Brooklyn, NY
Master of Merriment, Volume Black Gallery, New York, NY
2009
The Exquisite Corpse, Paul Robeson Gallery, Newark, NJ
Vivid Wonders of a Startled Mind, Gallery 51, North Adams, MA
2008
Strange Circus, Rohrer Find Art, Laguna Beach, LA
Summer Mix, Thierry Goldberg Project, New York, NY
Yale MFA Thesis Exhibition, Yale University Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
SaLon Spring 2008 Show, SaLon Gallery, London, United Kingdom
The Taiwanese Art Series Exhibition, Ching Shiun International Auctions Art Gallery, Taichung, Taiwan
SaLon Winter 2008 Show, SaLon Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2007
Garden of Eden, Gallery F-Stop, Bangkok, Thailand
Asian American Arts Festival, Silliman College Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Belief and Contemporary, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, China
Heave, Earth, Human, Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, Korea
HONORS, AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2019
Queens Arts Fund, Queens Council of Arts, Queens, NY
2015
Rancho Linda Vista Residency, Oracle, AZ
Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
2013
Artist in Marketplace, Bronx Museum of Art, Bronx, NY
2010
NYFA Immigrant Artist Projects, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY
2008
Elizabeth Canfield Hicks Award, Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT
2007
Sanyu Scholarship, Andrea Frank Foundation, New York, NY
2003
Study Abroad Bursary, University College London, London, United Kingdom
PRINT PUBLICATIONS
2016
Lost in Transition, Craddock-Terry Gallery
2007
Urban Circus, Media Bus Publication, Seoul, Korea
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022
Coleman, Charity, “Eleen Lin and Tammie Rubin”, ARTFORUM, Summer 2022, 237
Nesler, Tyler, “Eleen Lin’s whimsical mistranslations”, Interlocutor, April 29
Ford, Madison, “Eleen Lin and Tammie Rubin: Mythodical” – Artseen, The Brooklyn Rail, April 2022
2021
Haliti, Juliana, “Invisibility”, Barzakh Magazine, June 6
2020
James,Evan, “Americana Fantastica”, The Iowa Review, Winter 2019/20, 92-93
2019
Chen Reid, Linlin, “The Other Side of the Ocean: Eleen Lin, Vija Celmins and Endless Possibilities”, MuseumReview, December 26
Chang, Chen, “Taiwanese Artist Eleen Lin – Found in Translation, using Moby Dick as a creative blueprint”, World Journal, October 5
Yang, Chen Yu, “Artist Eleen L’n’s Solo exhibition at 456 Gallery”, China Press, October 4
Ene, Cosmina, “The Seeds of Creation: interviews with 18 Contemporary Women Artists”, Max Laniado Fine Arts, September 4, 2019, 279-312
Lee, Eugene, “Who’s Next – Eleen Lin”, Geneyclee Gallery, May 2, 2019
Schultz, Elizabeth, “The New Art of Moby-Dick”, Leviathan, Volume 21, Number 1, Johns Hopkins University Press, March 2019, 36-40, 54, 83
2018
Online Video Clip, “Eastside Story – Eleen Lin interview”, Hoon Productions, May 24, 2018
2017
Spear, Duston and Cohen, Hallie, “The Moby-Dick Project, A collaborative art exhibition with the Bedford Hills College Program Catalogue”, The Hewitt Gallery of Art, October 30, 2017, 10-11
Li, Yiyi, “Art Taipei – W.Ming Art”, Focus Art Magazine, Issue 22, September-October, 2017, 73
Cohen, Hallie and Roleke, Margaret, “Present Danger Catalogue”, The Hewitt Gallery of Art, March 2017, 14-15
2016
Jaeger, Emily, “Interview: Eleen Lin”, The Woven Tale Press, November 11, 2016
Tyler, Sandra, “Eleen Lin”, The Woven Tale Press Vol. 4, no.9, November, 2016, 37-43
Image credits, “Turning Points: Women Writers from Taiwan”, Words Without Borders, August 2016
Snyder, Jenna, “Anti-verse”, NYSAI Press, Summer 2016, cover, 13, 38-39
Xu, Lin, “Multiple cultural lens – Eleen Lin Interview”, W.Ming Art, April 28, 2016
Minard, Brittany, “Interview – Living in the Heart of Virginia”, WSET-TV, Lynchburg, VA March 17, 2016
Gillis, Casey, “Colliding cultures”, The Burg Vol.18 No.11, March 9, 2016, cover, 16-18
2015
Wang, Chih-Cheng, “2015 International Tsai-Mo Butterfly Art Exhibition Catalog”, Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau, December 2015, 80
Lu, Hubert, “Asian contemporary artists connecting the community”, World Journal Magazine No. 1648, October 18, 2015, cover, 16
Parrilli, Mary, “Artist to Look Out For Volume I”, Starry Night Production, 2015, 59
Silver, Arielle, “Cross-Cultural Narratives”, Lunch Ticket, Winter/Spring 2015
2014
Juarez, Frank, “Eleen Lin”, 365 Artists 365 Days, December 3, 2014
Swann Carinda, “Garrison Art Center”, Local Putnam, May 3, 2014
Kohler William Eckhardt, “A few current shows Part I- downtown, group, mostly”, Painting Lives! March 22, 2014
Bennett, Lennie, “3 intriguing exhibits winding down at Morean Arts Center”, Tampa Bay Times, April 22, 2014
“Three New Exhibitions Open at the Morean Arts Center”, Paradise News, February 2014
2013
Lescaze Zoe, “Queens Museum Gala Garners, Gift From Shelley, Donald Rubin”, Observer, June 4, 2013
2012
Finkelpearl, Tom, “Queens International 2012: Three Points Make a Triangle Catalog”, Queens Museum of Art, February 4, 2012, 48-49
2010
Huang, Mark K., “2010 International Tsai-Mo Humanistic Art Exhibition Catalog”, Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau, December 2010, 58
Huang, Chao-Hu, “Silk cannot box in the charm of ink painting”, Da Dun Cultural Bimonthly no. 61, September 2010, 43
Huang, Chao-Hu, “Inside the International Tsai-Mo Humanity Art Exhibition”, Artist Magazine Taiwan, Issue 424, September 2010
2009
Bell, Anonda and Diner, Steven J., “Exquisite Corpse: Paul Robeson Galleries 30th Anniversary”, Paul Robeson Galleries, 2009, 38
Huang, Mark K., “2009 International Tsai-Mo “Tu Yia” Painting Exhibition Catalog”, Taichung City Cultural Affairs Bureau, December 2009, 65
Lee Jennifer, “New York’s Next Top Artist?”,The New York Times City Room, July 27, 2009
Petrova Ariel, “Vivid Wonders at MCLA Gallery 51”, Berkshire Fine Arts, March 17, 2009
2008
Seggerman, Alexandra and Cheng, Yu-Hang, “Yale University School of Art 2008 MFA Painting & Printmaking”, Yale University, May 2008, 106-113
2007
Zhang, Kexin, “Belief and Contemporary Exhibition Catalog”, Guangdong Museum of Art, 2007
Byun, Gy Suk, “Heaven, Earth, Human Exhibition Catalog”, Gwangju Museum of Art, 2007, 13
Udnbkk51, “Three Contemporary Taiwanese Artist Exhibition Opens on the 22nd”, World Journal Thailand, December 12, 2007
2006
Cheng, Su K’ai, “I-Ling Lin’s Western/Eastern Paintings”, The Liberty Times, May 11, 2006
Ye Zih-Gang, “Opening of Yunlin Art Season”, The Epoch Times, May 5, 2006
2005
Pettifor Steven, “Review: Eleen Lin at Gallery F Stop”, Asian Art News Vol.15 No.5, September 2005, 115
Pokrajen, Siriwat Yo, “Art de Siam Television Interview – Hybrid World”, TAN Network TV, 2005
Mao Kitti, “Hybrid girl @ Hybrid world”, Daijahao Magazine, November 2005
Devnath Arun, ‘Hybrid World’, Global Soul, November 29, 2005
Khuansathavoranit Mallika, “Hybrid World”, Guru Magazine Vol.1 no.1, July 29, 2005, 12-13
2004
Chapakdee Thanom, “Ectoplasm: Power of the Spirit, Works of Eleen Lin”, Thai Nation Weekend Magazine, Vol. 13, Issue. 642, September 20-26, 2004
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan
Starwood Museum, Beijing, China
MSKCC Art Collection, New York, NY
Yunlin University Art Center, Yunlin, Taiwan
Jimenez-Colon Collection, Ponce, PR
International Baccalaureate Organization, London, United Kingdom
Hsinchu Art Museum, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Due to COVID-19, we are open by appointment. The gallery will follow social distancing protocol and allow only a certain number of visitors per appointment.
