Lin May Saeed

Lin May Saeed (b. 1973, Germany) presents Biene, a new commission of sculptures that span a narrative of human–animal relationships from the prehistoric, to the present day. This is the artist's first–ever institutional exhibition.

Saeed’s new commission includes a pantheon of carved, life–sized animals, alongside a steel gate sculpture, painted reliefs and a large backlit paper cut–out. Saeed’s work generates tensions between themes of oppression and liberation. She directly confronts our conflicted relationships with animals – who are at times characterised as companions, votives, an exploited labour force or food source – and by extension, our impact on and interactions with the environment.

The artist’s cross–cultural narratives draw from both Western traditions and her Jewish-Arab heritage, traversing references as divergent as the Animal Liberation Front, the Die Brücke movement, and ancient Mesopotamia. Her protagonists include the prophet Yahya, the mythological heroine Brunhilde, and Moschophoros, who Saeed re-casts as masked, chain–breaking animal rights activist. Often displaced in time, Saeed’s subjects gesture to atavistic animisms, yet equally imagine post–human conditions in which delimitations of gender, place and species are fluid, if not dissolved.

Lin May Saeed lives and works in Berlin. Recent solo exhibitions include: Lulu Exhibition Space, Mexico City, MX (2017); Nicolas Krupp Galerie Basel, Switzerland, CH (2016); Jacky Strenz Galerie, Frankfurt/Main, DE (2016); and The Skyscraper / a horizontal view, Julius Caesar, Chicago, US (2015).

Recent group exhibitions include: Class Reunion – Works from the Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann Collection Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, AT (2018); Art and the City, Zürich, CH (2018); Metamorphosis (curated by Chus Martínez), Museo Castello di Rivoli, Turino, IT (2018); La Fin de Babylone, KölnSkulptur #9, Cologne (2017); Animal Lovers, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst/ NGBK Berlin, DE (2016); 9th Berlin Biennale, DE (2016), Akademie der Künste Berlin, DE (2016); X. Bienal de Nicaragua, Fundación Ortiz Gurdian, NI (2016); Blocking, Martos Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2015).