Bachelor of Law (LLB), Yangon University, Myanmar 1985-1988, 1993-4
Htein Lin has painted and performed since childhood.He was member of many anyeint groups (comedy/drama) while at University, and was a Burmese cinema comedian (Htein Htein) in the mid-1990s. He took part in the 1988 pro-democracy movement in Burma and spent four years in exile in India and Northern Burma in camps of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF), a group opposed to the military government, where he studied art under Mandalay artist Sitt Nyein Aye, before returning to Rangoon to complete his law degree.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
PAINTING
Solo Shows
1996‘The Little Worm in the Ear’ 1st Solo Show (LawkanatArtGallery, Yangon)
1997‘31st’ 2nd Solo Show (MyoKyawArtGallery, Yangon)
2005 ‘00235’3rd solo show (35/B Art Studio, Yangon) A one-day exhibition of paintings completed while a political prisoner in Mandalay and Myaungmya Jails, 1998-2004, on cotton cloth using a variety of media and techniques.00235 was the prisoner number given to Htein Lin by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
2005 ‘Recycled’ 4th solo show, Lawkanat gallery, Yangon
2006 ‘Come Rain or Shine’ 5th solo show, River Gallery, Strand Hotel, Yangon
2007Asian Attitudes:group show in Poznan, Poland (July)
2007 Burma: Inside Out – exhibition of prison paintings, Asia House, London July-Oct
2008 'Beyond Burma' Group show, Chocolate Factory, London 11-23 Feb
2008 Solo show, 'Twenty Years on' Suwunnabhumi gallery, Chiang Mai, March
Htein Lin has also participated in group shows, including the GangawVillage art group, at galleries in Yangon, and in London and contributed illustrations for magazines in Burma, including Padauk Pwin Thit, Myanmar Thit and IDEA to which he also contributes poetry, short stories and articles.
PERFORMANCE ART
Htein Lin pioneered performance art in Burma in 1996 with ‘The Plastic Age’ and ‘Guitarist’, street performances in downtown Yangon and ‘The Little Worm in the Ear’ (Lawkanat Gallery, Yangon), followed by ‘The Present for the World’ (Lawkanat, 1997).Other performances in jail include ‘0 + 0 + 0 = 0’ (Mandalay, 1999), ‘The Fly’ (Myaung-Mya, 2001, Alliance Francaise, Yangon, August 2005 and NIPAF, Japan, 2006) ‘Cleaner’ (Myaung-Mya 2002), and ‘Life’ (Myaung-Mya 2003)
Following his release from jail in November 2004, Htein Lin partnered with Chaw Ei Thein on several performances in 2005 including ‘Mobile Art Gallery/Mobile Market’ (Street Performance at downtown Yangon). This performance was followed by 5 days detention and interrogation; it was adapted and repeated at Inya Gallery, Yangon after their release.
‘On the Table’ with Chaw Ei Thein (Saysaryar Gallery, Hlaingthaya, Yangon, September 2005),
‘We have arrived in the world’, group performance at Hnin-ka-gyo combined performance event, Saysaryar Gallery, Hlaingthaya, Yangon, November 2005;
‘Artist’s Life’with Chaw Ei Thein at Hnin-ka-gyo combined performance event, Saysaryar Gallery, Hlaingthaya, Yangon, November 2005, and Mandalay, May 2006
‘Standstill’, a daily performance to accompany his Recycled Solo Show, Lawkanat Gallery, Yangon, December 2005 comprising four hours of standing meditation;
‘Escape’, in collaboration with Finnish sound/installation/video artists Jari Haapera and Mirka Flander,Gitameit, Yangon, January 2006
INTERNATIONAL PERFORMANCE ART EXPERIENCE
Nippon Performing Arts Festival (NIPAF), Japan, July 2006
Artist in Residence, Rimbun Dahan www.rimbundahan.org near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dec 2006/Jan 2007, in cooperation with Network Initiative for Culture and Arts (NICA), Yangon and Heinrich Boll Foundation.Led performance art workshop for 50 participants at Lost Generation Artspace, KL, Jan 2007; artist’s talk at Multimedia University, Kuala Lumpur
'Love and Anger', Suwunnabhumi gallery, Chiang Mai, February 2007
Tupada Performance art festival (TAMA'07), Manila, Angono and Baguio, Philippines, April 2007
Artist’s Talk, Asian Art Archive, Hong Kong, April 2007
Venice Biennale, Migration Addicts group show (curated by DDM warehouse Shanghai), collateral event, June 2007
B-S-urma Event, Galleria Välivuosi, Helsinki, Finland, 4 November 2007
Various 'Free Burma' performances in London, Winchester, Finland, Norway, US October 2007-present
'Yes or No', Chiang Mai 13 March 2008 Festival Birmanie, Reves sous surveillance, Paris, May 2008 Library of Congress, WashingtonDC, May 2009 East-West via Belfast, organised by bbeyond September 2009
Performances by ArtEvict movement, London 2009/2010
APPOINTMENTS Jury Panel, Heinrich Boll Foundation award for Myanmar Documentary Film-making Workshop, March 2007
Panellist, first Freedom to Create Prize, 2008
Advisory Committee, Index on Censorship
Judge, Koestler prize for Prison Art, 2010
COLLECTIONS
Two of Htein Lin’s paintings have been purchased for the new US Embassy in Yangon.Others are in private collections in Belgium, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, US and UK.
