ART BY LIN WEI
BIOGRAPHY | LANDSCAPE | STILL LIFE | DRAWINGS
LIN WEI, THE LIBERTY, oil on canvas, size: 41"x33", 1995-2020
LIN WEI, HOMELAND, oil on canvas, size: 41"x33", 2020
LIN WEI, THE PRAYER, oil on canvas, size: 41"x33", 2020
WORK RELATED TO
THE WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR SOME EXHIBITION
LIN WEI, ALONE IN THE JADE PALACE, oil on wood panel, size: 8"x8", 2024
LIN WEI, ACTRESS ON THE PINK STAGE oil on wood panel, size: 8"x8", 2024
LIN WEI, HUNG IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON, oil on wood panel, size: 8"x8", 2024
LIN WEI, GELING #1, oil on wood panel, size: 8"x8", 2017
LIN WEI, GELING #2, oil on wood panel, size: 8"x8", 2017
LIN WEI, HUNG IN HER AMERICAN STORY, oil on wood panel, size: 8"x8", 2018
TIME OF WAR
LIN WEI，SEPARATION, oil on canvas, size: 36"x40", 2022
CLASSROOM LIFE PAINTING
LIN WEI，FIGURE DRAWING STUDIO, oil on canvas, size: 24"x18", 2020
LIN WEI, BACK OF A STANDING FEMALE NUDE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2020
LIN WEI, SIDE OF A STANDING FEMALE NUDE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2020
LIN WEI, A SITTING FEMALE NUDE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2023
LIN WEI, A WOMAN WITH BUTTERFLY TATTOOS, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2023
LIN WEI, A SITTING MALE NUDE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2023
LIN WEI, AFTER MARDI GRAS, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2023
LIN WEI, JAZMIN DRAWING, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2020
LIN WEI, DRAWING CLASSMATE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2020
LIN WEI, A GIRL DRAWING, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2020
LIN WEI, MICHAEL DRAWING, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2017
LIN WEI, TIFFANY, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2023
LIN WEI, A YOUNG PAINTER, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2020
LIN WEI, JOE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2018
LIN WEI, TANIA, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2019
LIN WEI, SHARON, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2016
LIN WEI, LOUISE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2017
LIN WEI, JENNIFER, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2017
LIN WEI, NANCY, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2016
LIN WEI, CATE, oil on canvas, size: 16"x20", 2017
LIN WEI, TESS, oil on canvas, size: 11"x14", 2021
AFTER GREATNESS SERIES
LIN WEI, THE DOVE after Emile Vernon's SUMMER ROSE, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2017, We were alarmed about the rising conflicts between peoples and nations, and fearful that dictators and fanatics would start yet another war. As an artist, all that I could do was pray for peace through my art. This is when a dove appeared in my imagination in combination with a painting that I had always loved: Summer Rose. I decided to combine this favorite painting with this insurgent dove to create a painting for peace. I painted myself as the subject of the portrait in place of the young woman. In the painting, I am outdoors and have just painted a dove on a canvas. Faithful to the original painting, I raise my left hand just so. On this hand alights a dove.
LIN WEI, MONA LIN after Da Vinci's MONA LISA, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2017, Leonardo’s da Vinci’s treasured work, the Mona Lisa was “viral” for hundreds of years. Many people have seriously or playfully used it to create their own art, or just have fun. I myself couldn’t help making my own version of it. I named my version Mona Lin. Lin is my first name, and this oil painting is my self-portrait done in the fashion and spirit of the Mona Lisa. I conscientiously worked to match the contours, and the lights and darks on the skin of the Mona Lin to those of the original Mona Lisa portrait. Then, I joyfully undertook alterations. I painted the hands of the Mona Lin bigger and stronger than the Mona Lisa’s hands—I am, after all, a modern woman that works with her hands. I also made the Mona Lin’s skin tone darker to match my own Asian skin tone. The most joyful change was to insert San Francisco, and my own Asian Arts School, into the background. There was one feature left to be considered: the smile. I could not bear to deliberately alter it. In painting my Mona Lin I humbly tried to match the Mona Lisa’s smile because that smile inspires people of every race and culture. I hope that Leonardo knows that.
LIN WEI, LOOKING LIKE THE GIRL WITH A PEARL ERRING, after the painting by Johannes Vermeer, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2019, I painted Looking Like The Girl With a Pearl Earring in tribute to Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring. It’s one of a series of paintings titled After Greatness in which I playfully replace the faces of famous portraits with my own face and make other illustrative additions and comments. I tried to match the original in color, clothing and pose. The first departure from the original was to replace the European girl’s face with my middle-aged Asian face. I kept the earring since it connects the old story to the new one. But I added a dragon hairpins to the side of the turban, and two blue stones to the front, just like my grandmother used to. I then added two paint brushes as hairpins through the top of her turban. This was my personal claim to the portrait as a painter. I then added rain and a storm into the dark background. If you feel that Vermeer has the power to fire our creative imaginations after 500 years, you are right.
LIN WEI, LOOKING LIKE AMELIA after a photo of Amelia Earhart, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2019
LIN WEI, LOOING LIKE LEE MILLER after a photo of LEE MILLER, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2019
LIN WEI, LOOKING LIKE LADY AGNEW after a portrait by John Singer Sargent's LADY AGNEW OF LOCHNAW, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2019
LIN WEI, LOOKING LIKE ELISABETH, after SELF-PORTRAIT WITH STRAW HAT by Elisabeth Louise Vigee, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2019
LIN WEI, XIAN JIE after a portrait by Charles Amable Lenoir's PINK ROSE, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2017
LIN WEI, THE PAINTER WITH HORNS, after a SELF-PORTRAIT by Pan Yuliang, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2019
LIN WEI, URGENT VENUS, after Sandro Botticelli's THE BIRTH OF VENUS, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2020
LIN WEI, LOOK LIKE VAN GOGH, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2019
LIN WEI, THE THINKER, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2020
THE WORLD OF FRIDA EXHIBITION SERIES
LIN WEI, WELCOME FRIDA TO MY IMAGINATION, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2018. Artist’s Statement for Frida Project I have always wanted to paint Frida. I only became aware of Frida as a person and an image in 1994 when I pulled a small book of her paintings off of a bookshelf at a local library. I was struck by her look, her pain, her personality, her painting style, and her story. Everything about her was so unique. I saw her exposing her passions, and her anguish, and her pain to the world. This was exactly what I had been discouraged from doing during my early years of painting. And here was Frida bravely telling her truth. Most of all, I was struck by her look: the way she dressed, her face, and her hair. Her hair pulled up with flowers in it, reminded me of traditional Chinese hairstyles. I imagined how she would look living in China.
LIN WEI, FRIDA IN PURPLE, after a self portrait of Frida Kahlo, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2018
LIN WEI, LOOKING LIKE FRIDA, after Frida's SELF PORTRAIT WITH THORN NECKLACE AND HUMMINGBIRD, oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2018
IMMIGRATION SERIES
Lin Wei. A SONG OF THE PAST oil on canvas 40”x60” 1999
LIN WEI, JOURNEY, oil on canvas, size: 70.9"X63" 1987
LIN WEI, DIALOGUE BETWEEN DREAM AND REALITY, oil on canvas, size: 70.9"X63" 1987
CHINESE WOMEN’S STORIES SERIES
Lin Wei. RESCUE A CHAINED WOMAN oil on canvas 40”x60” 2022
LIN WEI, AGES OF BEAUTY 1900, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, WAITING, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, AGES OF BEAUTY 1930, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, AGES OF BEAUTY 1935, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, AGES OF BEAUTY 1950, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, AGES OF BEAUTY 1960, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, AGES OF BEAUTY 1970, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, GUARDIAN DANCE, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 1994
LIN WEI, AGES OF BEAUTY 2020, oil on canvas, size: 24"x36", 2020
DREAMS OF CHILDREN SERIES
LIN WEI, PAINTING A STORM , oil on canvas, size: 20"x16", 2015
LIN WEI, THROUGH A STORM , oil on canvas, size: 20"x16", 2015
LIN WEI, OVER NEW LANDS , oil on canvas, size: 20"x16",, 2016
LIN WEI, RACING THE CLOUD , oil on canvas, size: 20"x16", 2020
LIN WEI, PAINTING ROSES. , oil on canvas, size:20"x16", 2016
LIN WEI, ON THE WAY TO PAINT, oil on canvas, size:20"x16", 2015
LIN WEI, NO VIOLENCE, charcoal with watercolor on paper, size:16"x20", 2016
LIN WEI, A WITCH SAYS HI TO THE GREAT WALL oil on canvas, size:16"x20", 2016
LIN WEI, A SUMMER TREE oil on canvas, size: 18"x24", 2020
LIN WEI, VISITING EARTH watercolor on paper size:16"x20", 2016
LIN WEI, NO NIGHT SKY, watercolor on paper size:16"x20", 2016
LIN WEI, DANCING WITH ANGELS, watercolor on paper size:16"x20", 2016