BANK is pleased to present, for the first time ever, a dialogue between artists, Richard and Michael Lin. These two, internationally renowned Taiwanese artists’ life and work have followed similar trajectories albeit in different eras and artistic styles, and while they were related as distant cousins, they had infrequent contact and have never exhibited together before. Both artists left Taiwan at a young age and, against challenges of the day, established their careers in the West. Both have returned to Taiwan and are now considered some of the most important artists of their respective generations. Richard Lin was a forerunner of minimalism in the United Kingdom while Michael Lin was a seminal proponent of multiculturalism and Relational Aesthetics. For ABHK we present these two distinctive, blood related artists in a riveting conversation that exposes their shared sensibilities and curious contrasts.
Richard Lin’s last, little known, idiosyncratic body of sculptural work, which aligns packaged Ikea furniture in simple configurations, brings together his minimal sensibility with quotidian and consumer culture. Michael Lin’s signature floral patterns are presented as both subtle, minimal pencil line drawings- the prototype of his early large-scale painting installations, as well as a colorful wall mural. The dialogue between these artists shifts between humor and seriousness, form and appropriation, between tone and temperament. Michael’s simple pencil drawings, where “the color doesn't get in the way” honors Richard’s famed minimal line works while his flower patterned mural echoes the color and configurations of Richard’s cabinet stacks. We will also present flat work sketches and preparatory collages of this series by Richard Lin and some new painting works by Michael Lin especially prepared for this occasion. This is a unique occasion to see two world-renown Asian artists from the same family, exhibiting in discourse together for the first time.
