Maya Lin

Maya Lin virtually redefined the idea of monument with her very first work, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which she designed while still a college student at Yale and has since gone on to pursue a remarkable career that encompasses large-scale environmental installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural works, and memorials.

Throughout her career, Lin has consistently delved into how we experience and relate to the natural world. Her award-winning architectural projects create a close dialogue between the landscape and built environment, and showcase sustainable design solutions. Her artworks have been shown in solo and group exhibitions around the world.

Lin’s work asks the viewer to reconsider nature and the environment at a time when it is crucial to do so. A committed environmentalist, she is working on her last memorial, What is Missing? which raises awareness about species and habitat loss giving people both immediate and long-term solutions to the current crisis surrounding biodiversity loss and the overarching threat of climate change.

In 2009 President Barack Obama presented Maya the National Medal of Arts, and in 2014 she was awarded the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She has been profiled in Time Magazine, The New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker. Her architecture and artworks have consistently elicited praise in magazines ranging from Newsweek to Art in America and Architectural Record. In 1996 a film about her work, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. ‘Maya Lin: Topologies’, a new monograph encompassing the past 30 years of her career was recently published by Skira Rizzoli.