Lin Tianmiao (b. 1961, Taiyuan) lives and works in Beijing. Lin Tianmiao studied in the Fine Arts Department at Capital Normal University in 1984. In 1988, she moved to the United States, where she encountered the feminist art movement of the late 1980s. In 1989, she studied at the Art Students League of New York and subsequently worked in New York as a designer.

By the mid-1990s, Lin divided her time between Beijing and New York. During this period, “apartment art” became a notable phenomenon in Beijing and Shanghai, and Lin gained significant creative experience through these practices. In 1998, together with Wang Gongxin, she co-founded Beijing’s Loft New Media Art Center. She rose to prominence with her experimental video and installation works, becoming one of the first Chinese female artists to receive international recognition.

Her work often incorporates audience participation, generating psychological tension between the “external” dimensions of the artwork and the “internal” condition of the body. Drawing on bodily experience and historical memory, she emphasizes the revelatory potential of diverse media, using the interplay of words and images to construct a flexible “theater of echoes.”

Lin’s notable exhibitions include: Istanbul Biennale (1997); Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (1999); National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (2001); Shanghai Biennale (2002); Ireland Biennale (2002); Gwangju Biennale (2002, 2004); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2005); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA, 2007); Singapore Tyler Print Institute (2007); Brooklyn Museum, New York (2007); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA, 2008); Asia Society Museum, New York (2012, Bound Unbound: Lin Tianmiao, her first major solo museum exhibition in the United States); Setouchi Triennale (2016); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2017); Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai (2018, Lin Tianmiao: Systems); and Power Station of Art, Shanghai (2025, Lin Tianmiao: There’s No Fun in It!).