ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Ziya Lin is a Mohkinstsis/Calgary based Chinese visual artist. She primarily works in drawing and installation, infusing them with traditional Chinese art aesthetics to explore themes of identity, diaspora, place, memory, and female subjectivity. Lin holds a BFA from Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (China, 2014) and an MFA from the University of Calgary (Canada, 2017). Her work has been exhibited at Arts Commons, Nickle Galleries, Calgary Central Library, and Artpoint Gallery, and featured in Cultural and Pedagogical Inquiry (Vol. 8, No. 2, 2016): “Still I Rise: A Tribute to Maya Angelou”.  

From July to August, she will undertake an artist residency at the Alberta Society of Artists. During this residency, she will focus her artistic exploration on Crossroads Market and develop a site-responsive installation that explores the connection between local marketplaces and the urban DNA of a city. As one of the city’s most dynamic public spaces, the marketplace is closely intertwined with vernacular urban culture. It is not only just a place for trading, but also a microcosm of the local culture, economy, social structure and relationships of the community. This artwork will highlight the local marketplace as a physical expression of a city’s cultural identity and character.