Candice Lin
Concord, USA, 1979. Lives and works in Los Angeles, USA.

Exhibiting since 2001, Candice Lin works with a variety of media such as drawing, video, sculpture, performance and installation. The practice of the artist is a permanent inquiry into racial and gender issues, and how power structures, especially colonialism and imperialism, are involved in the construction of identities. Traversing her work is always the idea that the construction of identity based on the difference, whether national, racial, religious or of gender, is a kind of magic that denies cultural subjectivity.

Lin builds her projects from an extensive archive composed by texts and images, usually from a repressed past: documents of military records, records of slave plantations, diaries, case studies from psychiatric institutions, paintings and engravings of the New World, the so-called “caste paintings”, which emerged in Eighteenth-century Mexico, the ethnographic photographs of the World Fairs, among many others. What the artist seeks is marginal gestures or expressions, that which is on the background of the image, what is read between the lines, the unsaid, what was silenced.

Solo Exhibitions (selection)
2022
The Milk of Dreams, 59th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.
Pigs and Poison, Spike Island, Bristol, UK.
2019
Spice, Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38, New York City, USA.
Meaningless Squiggles, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
2018
A Hard White Body, a Soft White Worm, Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
2017
A Hard White Body, Bétonsalon - Center for Art and Research, Paris, France.
2016
Group Show, Galeria Fontes Vilaça, Kiki Mazzucchelli, São Paulo, Brazil.
The Thing Quarterly, São Francisco, USA.
2015
Transformation Marathon, Serpentine Galleries, London, United Kingdom.
Two-person exhibition with Martine Syms, Bernard Charnwut Chan Gallery, Pomona College, Claremont, USA.
Syncorax's Garden, 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, USA.
2014
Present Future, Artissima, Turin, Italy.
2013
The long-lasting intimacy of strangers, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Porto, Portugal.
2012
It makes the patient sees pictures, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
Inanimism, Hudson D. Walker Gallery, Provincetown, USA.
2010
The Eternal Telethon, Itinerant project, Los Angeles, USA.
2009
The Sexual Life of Savages, Chung King Project, Los Angeles, USA.
2007
Sicknesses of the Spirit, Lisa Dent Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
Group Exhibitions, Performances & Screenings (selection)
2022
Meia Noite, Ano Zero, Bienal de Coimbra, Portugal.
2021
Flamboyanzinho, Flor-de-pavão, Flamboyant-mirim, Barba-de-barata, Galeria da Boavista, Lisbon, Portugal.
Possibility Made Real: Drawing & Clay, 12.26 Gallery, Dallas, US.
2019
Le jour des esprits est notre nuit, CRAC Alsace, Altkirch, France.
Ghost in the ghost, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, New York City, USA.
2018
Blessed be: Mysticism, Spirituality, and the Occult in Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tuscon Arizona, USA.
Bounty, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Made in L.A. 2018, The Hammer, Los Angeles, USA.
Hyperobjects, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, USA.
2017
Manipulate the World, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden.
2016
The mountain, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, USA.
A Body Reduced to Brilliant Colour, Gasworks, London, United Kingdom.
Adult Swim, Machine Project exhibition around the Annenberg Beach House Swimming Pool, Los Angeles, USA.
The Wicked Tongue, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
The First Horizons of Juno, MASS Gallery, Austin, USA; TEOR/éTica, Costa Rica.
A Kingdom of Hours, Gasworks, London, United Kingdom.
Please Have Enough Acid on the Dish!, M+B, Los Angeles, USA.
Cumuli II, Trading Places, Gallery 5020, Salzburg, Austria .
Mushrooms & Honey, metro pcs e Eitherway LA, Los Angeles, USA.
The Wedding Project, Art Dubai Projects and Delfina Foundation, Mina A'Salam Hotel, Dubai, UAE.
Albert Herter, Caitlin Keogh and Candice Lin, Koenig & Clinton, New York, USA.
2015
You are a spacious fluid sac, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
It was only a moment for you, CAAA - Centro para os Assuntos da Arte e Arquitectura, Guimarães, Portugal.
Plants in Transition, (collaboration with Patrick Staff), 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica, USA.
Plants in Transition, (collaboration with Patrick Staff), CAAA (Centro para os Assuntos da Arte e Arquitectura), Guimarães, Portugal.
Cumuli II, Trading Places, L40, Berlim, Germany; Kunsthalle Memmingen, Germany.
Canibalia, Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France.
Off-Road Expo, Machine Project and High Desert Test Sites.
2014
Une machine désire de l'instruction comme un jardin désire de la discipline, FRAC, Lorraine, France.
Spectacular Subdivision, High Desert Test Sities, Wonder Valley, USA.
Unruly, Wignall Museum, Chaffey College, Rancho Cucamonga, USA.
The Politics of Food, Delfina Foundation, London, United Kingdom.
2013
MexiCali Biennial 2013, Vincent Price Art Museum, Monterey Park, USA.
New Stories from the Edge of Asia: This/That, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, USA.
True Believers, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, USA.
Folding Time Rhymes, Greene Exhibitions, Los Angeles, USA.
2012
Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, KChung, Cottage Home, Los Angeles, USA.
Deep Space, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
shapes and forces, Galeria Quadrado Azul, Porto, Portugal.
Los Angeles – Contemporary Tendencies, Helene Bailly Gallery, Paris, France.
Cave-In, Cueva Arcillas, Puerto Rico.
Beached, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, USA.
Plus ou moins sorcières, La Maison Populaire, Montreuil, France.
2011
Artist Resource Completion Grant, Center for Cultural Innovation, Los Angeles, USA.
ARTLAB+Film Forum: Women Empowered, Hirshhorn Museum and Transformer Gallery, Washington DC, USA.
Black is the Color of True, Co/Lab & Monte Vista, Los Angeles, USA.
Suggested Reading, The Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA.
Eslov Wide Shut, Eslövs Kommun and Mallorca Landings, Bloomberg's Warehouse, Eslöv, Sweden.
Whole New Animal, Intimate Theater, Luckman Fine Arts Complex, California State University, Los Angeles, USA.
Becoming Animal, Glendale College Art Gallery, Glendale, USA.
Gathered in a Clearing, LEVEL, Brisbane, Australia.
Bodies and/as Things, Cerritos College Art Gallery, Cerritos, USA.
The Open Daybook Exhibition, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, USA.
2010
Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Cultural Exchange International Pilot Program Awardee, USA.
The Mystics Circle, Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA.
Nor Or, Pieter, Los Angeles, USA.
Dream-In, Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA.
Monte Vista, 12 Gauge series, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, USA.
Bad Thing, Sea and Space, Los Angeles, USA.
2009
Because the Night, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman College, Orange, USA.
Glue, Paper, Scissors, Luckman Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, USA.
1999, China Art Objects, Los Angeles, USA.
2008
The Ups & Downs: Nest, with Marcus Civin, Betalevel, Los Angeles, USA.
The Mystical, Scatological, and the Occult, Monte Vista, Los Angeles, USA.
Alternative Places, LAX airport, Los Angeles, USA.
2007
Sundowners, Happy Lion Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
Humor Us, LA Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
The Pyramid Show, Monte Vista, Los Angeles, USA.
American Symposium, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, USA.
The Ordinary Fantastic, Milliken Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden.
Tall Totem Pole, 1269 E. 6th Street, Los Angeles, USA.
2006
A Warning Shouldn’t be Pleasant, West Los Angeles College Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
Beautiful Deceptions, Studio Avenue 50, Los Angeles, USA.
Video Picnic, Variety Candy, Los Angeles, USA.
Halloweird, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco/ Central Cinema, Seattle/ Axiom Theater, Houston/ Out North, Anchorage/ Project 101, Paris/ CHOAS Studios, Colorado Springs/ Indie Memphis, Memphis.
Video-Drive-IN: OK. Quoi?!, Contemporary Arts Festival, Struts Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.
Brave New World, Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
Sean Horchy, Candice Lin and Tim Sullivan, Lisa Dent Gallery, San Francisco, USA.
Awards
2011
Ghetto Biennial 2, Port au Prince, Haiti.
2010
Holograms, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles, USA.
2009
Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, USA.
2004
San Francisco Art Institute Annual Artist Book Contest Award, San Francisco, USA.
Collections
Swedish Arts Council, Sweden.
Exploited painting, 2012. Painting from a tourist arts and crafts market in Port au Prince, Haiti, Caribbean punch, punch bowl, pump, misc hardware, aqua resin, polymer clay. Painting 38 x 48 x 1,27 cm with other dimensions variable 
Bacium Sub Cauda, 2012. Stop motion animation. TRT 00:06:47 
Divinations upon the outcome of war, 2012. Etching with hand coloring. 22 x 27,9 cm 
Sycorax's Collections (Herbarium), 2011. Etching with watercolor and pressed plants and herbs. 28,5 x 34 cm 
Sycorax's Collections (Happiness), 2011. Etching with watercolor and magazine collage. 28,5 x 34 cm 
Whole New Animal, 2011. Stop motion animation and video. TRT 00:19:38 
Translations in Value, 2011. Mixed media sculpture. Dimensions variable 
Types of Magic, 2010. Performance. 20 minutes 
Types of Magic, 2010. Ink on paper. 36,8 x 50,8 cm 
Holograms, 2010. Production still 
Inside Out, (video still), 2010. Stop motion animation and video. TRT 00:02:46 
Preparations for a Regendered Society, 2009. Graphite and watercolor on paper. 32 x 42,5 cm 
Fatherless Children in a matrilineal society, 2009. Ink on paper. 32 x 42,5 cm 
Threshold, 2009. Ink, watercolor and grafite on paper. 99 x 124 cm 
Birth of a Nation, 2008. Ink and watercolor on paper. 107 x 140 cm 
Raising the Dead, 2008. Ink and watercolor on paper. 112 x 140 cm 
The affect of vibratory sounds on persons prone to hysteria, 2007. Graphite on paper. Dyptic, 40,6 x 61 cm 
Representations of the Demonic, 2007. Graphite and colored pencil on paper. 30,5 x 45,7 cm (dyptic) 
Family Portrait: Joseph Kossuth Dixon, Earth Mother, and Ishi the last Yahi, 2007. Graphite on paper. 40,6 x 30,5 cm 
Wigan Pit Brow Women, 2006-2012. Ink and watercolor on cut, folded, taped paper, coal, wood, string. Dimensions variable