Liliane Lijn (b. 1939, New York, USA) studied Archaeology at Sorbonne University, Paris. Surrealism and Buddhism were early influences. Friendships with Beat poets led Lijn to explore, as early as 1962, the relationship between language and light in her kinetic Poem Machines. Inspired by science, feminine mythology, and eastern philosophies, Lijn uses industrial and natural materials with geometric forms to reinvent the feminine. Science and myth are transformed from cosmogenic archetypes into drawings, performances, audio-visual and kinetic works. Perception is a major concern as is the relationship between matter and light.
She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Warwick and has been awarded numerous residencies, most recently at European Gravitational Observatory (EGO), Pisa. Internationally exhibited since the 1960s, her works are in public collections including Tate Britain, The British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, London; FNAC, Paris. Recent exhibitions include: Liliane Lijn: Arise Alive, a solo survey exhibition at Haus Der Kunst, Munich (2024) touring to mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien (2024-2025) and Tate St. Ives, Saint Ives (2025); Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946-1962, Grey Art Museum, New York (2024); Sirens (some poetics), Amant Foundation, New York (2022); The Milk of Dreams, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice (2022). A monograph has been produced to accompany Liliane Lijn: Arise Alive. Her memoir, Liquid Reflections will be published by Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House, March 2025.