Htein Lin (b.1966) is an artist, writer and former comic actor, based in Myanmar. He developed his artistic practice in prison (1998-2004), painting secretly on cotton prison uniforms in his series 00235.    Meditating for several hours daily, Buddhism is a major inspiration for his work as are human rights, including freedom of speech and discrimination. He is a founding member of the Association for Myanmar Contemporary Art (AMCA).

Recent and ongoing series includes ‘A Show of Hands’, plaster casts of arms of former political prisoners, with their stories; and ‘Skirting the Issue’ exploring the underlying discriminatory attitudes towards women in Myanmar,  ‘How do you find….?’, paintings of cities and countries using his prison technique;  ‘Recycled’, abstracts begun on his release using cheap  locally recycled cardboard, and now focussed on words in Burmese script that symbolize the zeitgeist; and  ‘Signs of the Times’,  where Myanmar’s economic modernization is captured through discarded acrylic cuttings used for signboards.

Htein Lin – Wikipedia