Aung Myint Aung Myint born in 1946 in Myanmar, 1968, graduated from the Rangoon Arts and Science University, majoring in Psychology. A self-taught artist, who often works in oil, also works freely on installation, performance and collaborative paintings. His works place him in the forefront of the contemporary art movement in Yangon. This has not been an easy path, but he has inspired many young artists to break free from traditional painting techniques and subject matters. Much of the forms and compositions of Aung Myint's work is based on the Myanmar traditional alphabet using mainly black, white and red in his paintings. His work moves through mid-sixties semi-abstract and cubist-style works to the period of "fragmenting" his images in the late seventies and eighties, to an introspective, highly emotional splashing, smearing and dripping of paint, the strokes used being derived from the circle and swirls of Myanmar alphabet. His latest works use that same Myanmar calligraphic stroke, but these have been tamed into gentle and sometimes humorous depictions of "Mother and Child" this theme is used to make a contemporary statement about humanity, society and country. The paintings can be seen as series of love poems inspired by his own experience with his wife, his own daughter and child and also feelings for his homeland. Most of the works in this series comprise a single linear stroke in brush traversing the entire painting to create a work that is extremely simple and childlike, and as charming in its apparent naivete. It is interesting that the thesaurus list of the word "naivete" with "artlessness". In Aung Myint's love poems he subtly evokes peace, love and joy in the image that he has abstracted but with which we can make out with little difficulty the image of mother and

child. The one doting, soft, strong, the other, an ingenuous squiggle of childhood. Infancy is a little mass, not quite formed, a natural “Mother” of the mother figure. To Aung Myint, color has always been an academic choice, and thus has chosen to use only black and white and sometimes red as an emotional color with a variety of meanings and interpretations. Black and white for the artist is non-negotiable; the act of painting is unlike writing. To call each painting an emotional statement would not be strong. It would also be correct to say that each piece comes with many layers of emotion-anxiety, anger, despair, sadness, tragedy, acceptance, belief. Aung Myint has staged more than sixty shows in Burma and several in foreign countries such as Japan (1995, 1999, 2000), Singapore (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001), Taiwan (1996), Malaysia (1997, 1998), Germany (1997, 1999), Netherlands (1998), Vietnam (1998), Great Britain (1999), Thailand (1999, 2001), Macau (2000), Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong (2000) and Finland (2001). His works are also found in the Singapore Art Museum, the National Art Gallery of Malaysia, and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan. Aung Myint was the first Burmese artist to win a prize from the ASEAN Art Awards, in 2002 with a set of nine paintings from his Mother and Child series. Exhibitions (selected) 2019 ‘20/20’, Karin Weber Gallery anniversary exhibition, HK 2015 'Masters of Myanmar', Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong 2013 ‘No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia’, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 2010 ‘Citizen Of The World’, Yavuz Fine Art, Singapore ‘Art from Myanmar Today’, Osage Art Foundation, Singapore 2007 Solo exhibition, Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong 2005 Myanmar-Nippon Art Exchange, Japan Solo exhibition, Lokanat Galleries, Yangon Tsunami Fundraising Charity Exhibition-Auction, American Center, Yangon 10th NIPAF-Shinshu Performance Art Summer Seminar, Nagano, Japan 2004 Crossing/Knotting group exhibition, Nordbahnhof, Berlin, Germany Group Show, Painting Gallery, New York, USA Peintres Contemporains Birmains, Alliance Francais, Yangon

2003 Second Forum on Art and Culture in the Mekong Region, Asian Cultural Council, The Rockefeller Foundation, Phnom Pehn-Siem Reap, Cambodia Solo exhibition, Karin Weber Gallery, Hong Kong 2002 Solo exhibition, Art 2 Gallery, Singapore Solo exhibition, Kentler International Drawing Space, New York, USA 4th Asian Topia Performance Art Festival, Bangkok, Thailand 2001 8th NIPAF-Myanmar Performance Art Festival, Yangon Oriental Curtain group exhibition, Varcaus Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland The end of Growth group exhibition, Heinrich Boll Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand Solo exhibition, Lokanat Galleries, Yangon Time: The Watch Has No Numbers group exhibition, Lokanat Galleries, Yangon 2000 Life performance, Chaungtha-Pathein, Myanmar Asian Performance Art festival, Macau Three artist exhibition, The Substation, Singapore 1999 6th Nippon International Performance Art Festival (NIPAF), Tokyo-Nagano-Matsumoto-Nagoya, Japan Asian Wind solo exhibition, Shinseido Hatanaka, Tokyo, Japan Form and Volume group exhibition, Singapore Five Continents: The Brass Gong and I performance, Lokanat Galleries, Yangon Camel group exhibition, London Iskadar Jill-Aung Myint-Tisna Sajaya three artist exhibition, The Substation, Singapore Oriental Curtain group exhibition, Galerie On, Koln, Germany 2nd Asian Topia Performance Art Festival, Bangkok, Thailand Solo exhibition, Mr Guitar, Yangon 1998 Fringe Festival, Singapore Festival of the Arts ASEAN Masterworks, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Imaging Selves: Permanent Collection Show, The National Art Museum of Singapore Group exhibition, Royal Tropics Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands Philip Morris Group of Companies ASEAN Art Awards, Saigon, Vietnam 1997 Beginning 'n' End 2, performance, Yangon Aung Myint-Ye Myint-Hasan Zolikfly three artist show, Art 2,Singapore ASEAN Masterworks, ASEAN Leaders Summit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Solo exhibition, Grasenstein, Germany 1996 New Paintings from Myanmar, The Substation, Singapore Solo exhibition,

Judson Church Centre, Yangon Taipei International Art Fair, World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan 1995 Omnibus: Five Myanmar Artists group exhibition, Gallery Voice, Kyoto, Japan Beginning 'n' End, first performance, Yangon 1994 First solo exhibition, The Inya Gallery of Art, Yangon Awards 2002 Juror's choice award, Philip Morris Group of Companies Myanmar Juror's choice award, ASEAN Art Awards, Bali, Indonesia

Public Collections Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York Singapore Art Museum The National Art Gallery, Malaysia Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan Publication Andrew Ranard (2009). Burmese Painting: A Linear and Lateral History. Silkworm Books