Michael Steinberg Fine Art is pleased to present Skin Drawings, a project room exhibition of monumental graphite drawings by Cynthia Lin. Based on computer scans of skin, orifices, and hair, their overwhelming detail invites conflicting experiences of discomfort and fascination. Re-seeing these speedily gained photographs, through the extremely slow process of drawing, she accumulates microscopic observations that develop into varied and contradictory associations.

These colossal orifices, pressed against glass, convey a tension between intimacy and vastness that evokes conflicting aspects of the current human condition. They are vulnerable to scrutiny yet mysterious. Although truthfully represented, they can be easily misread, due to deliberate confusion between genders, as well as between various parts of the body. Often incorporating computer scan disruptions, caused by breath condensation and twitching, these images reflect the compromised state of modern visual information. These informational gaps within seemingly factual images open the way for experiencing complexity, enigma, and the subjective.

This intertwining of the “real” and the imagined was a theme also explored in her previous body of work, dust drawn actual size using the silverpoint technique. These were shown at the Drawing Center, Adam Baumgold Gallery, Dallas Museum of Art, and Julie Chae Gallery, among numerous other venues.

She was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, and is teaching at Sarah Lawrence College. She received an M.F.A. and M.A. from The University of Iowa, Iowa City, and a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.