Htein Lin – Another Spring

Richard Koh Fine Art (RKFA) is pleased to announce Myanmar artist Htein Lin solo exhibition in Singapore. Titled Another Spring, the exhibition is slated to run from 18 February – 19 March 2022 at Richard Koh Fine Art Singapore, Blk 47 Malan Road #01-26 Gillman Barracks, Singapore 109444.

Another Spring is a solo presentation of Myanmar artist Htein Lin’s latest series of work. A suite of paintings rendered on longyi-s, the traditional garb of the country, they pay tribute to an installation of longyi paintings enacted by the artist on a Yangon street in March 2021, at the height of the protests against the recent military coup. Myanmar belief holds that it is detrimental to a man’s hpone, or male glory, to walk beneath women’s garments that are worn below the waist, and the street installation, which was intended to slow down army soldiers, was quickly destroyed. The exhibition also recalls Htein Lin’s time at a student rebel camp on the Myanmar-China border in the early 1990s, in the aftermath of his participation in the pro-democracy uprising of 1988. The paintings in the show depict victims of the violence that followed the coup d’etat last year, as well as channeling agonizing memories of the artist’s past experience of persecution. They are stark reminders of the cost of power, and its brutal possibilities, on individual lives.

The show is curated by Louis Ho, an independent curator based in Singapore.

Htein Lin (b.1966, Myanmar) is a Burmese artist (painting, installation, performance), and curator and writer. He has also worked as a comedian and actor. Work in museums and private collections: M+ contemporary art museum, Hong Kong; ICRC Museum, Geneva; Singapore Art Museum; Staatliche Museum Funf Kontinente, Munich. Two of Htein Lin’s paintings on cloth were purchased for the US Embassy in Yangon. Other works are in private collections in Belgium, France, Netherlands, India (including a specially commissioned piece, Night Shift, for Lekha Poddar, 2014), Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, US and UK. Other commissioned pieces are in Rosewood Hotels in Yangon and Phnom Penh. His works are included in the Artists’ Pension Trust – Beijing collection. Htein Lin practises vipassana meditation daily, and a major inspiration for his work is Buddhism whose themes, stories and philosophy he incorporates in his art. Still based in Myanmar, he is a Founding Member of the Association for Myanmar Contemporary Art (AMCA), founded in 2021, and remains determined to share his art and experience with a new generation of artists and the wider public.