Born in Germany to a mother of Jewish descent and an Iraqi father Lin May Saeed (1973, Würzburg – 2023, Berlin) had been dealing for decades with the relationship between humans and animals, the destruction of the habitat of the animal world by humans, beginning with the Neolithic period. Her sculptures, reliefs, gates and installations deal with the exploitation of animals, their liberation, the utopia of a peaceful coexistence between animals and humans, and the self-seeking meanness of the latter.

Saeed’s works are mostly made of so-called “poor materials” such as Styrofoam, cardboard or tool steel. Her iconographic frame of reference includes Egyptian statuary, Greco-Roman sculpture and natural history museum displays, among other things. She was drawn to Styrofoam due to its essentially unattractive and difficult nature, which she sought to aesthetically redeem, despite and because of its essentially ruinous use of and impact upon nature. Generally speaking, the work becomes especially relevant in our post-enlightenment, Anthropocene paradigm, where the relationship between the so-called natural world and humanity is being radically re-evaluated. Nevertheless, Saeed’s works are not doctrinal at all nor do they have a moralizing undertone. They are rather narrative and not without humor.

Lin May Saeed was represented by the gallery since 2006. The Estate is exclusively managed by Jacky Strenz.

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Currently Lin May Saeed’s works are on view in a solo exhibition at the GAMeC in Bergamo (c: Lorenzo Giusti).

She is included in group shows such as: The Lifes of Animals (c: Joanna Zielinska), M HKA, Antwerp; The Parliament of Marmots (c: Lorenzo Giusti with Marta Papini as associate curator), Biennale Gherdëina 9, Ortisei; Stories from the Ground, (c: Martin Germann), Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem; Sculpture Milwaukee (c: John Riepenhoff), Milwaukee; Für Alle! Demokratie neu gestalten, Bundeshalle, Bonn; Songs for the Changing Seasons (c: Filipa Ramos and Lucia Pietroiusti), Vienna Climate Biennale, Vienna.

Solo shows include (selection): (2023) In Paradise, the Snow falls Slowly (c: Kathleen Reinhardt), Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin; Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles; (2021) Rami, Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt/Main; (2020) Arrival of the Animals (c: Robert Wiesenberger), The Clark, Williamstown; (2019) Girl with Cat, Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt/Main; Lin May Saeed & Max Brand, What Pipeline, Detroit; (2018) Biene (c: Joe Scotland), Studio Voltaire, London; (2017) Djamil, Lulu, Mexico City.

Group shows include (selection): (2023) Der König ist tot, lang lebe die Königin (c: Udo Kittelmann), Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden; Spark Birds (c: Xander Karskens), Kasteel Wijlre, Wijlre; (2021) Eurasia (c: Joanna Zielinska), MHKA Antwerp; Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale; Espressioni (c: Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev), Museo Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli; La Mer Imaginaire, Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles; (2020) Crack Up – Crack Down (c: Slavs and Tatars), Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw; (2019) City Prince/sses (c: Hugo Vitrani), Palais de Tokyo, Paris; (2018) Wilderness (c: Esther Schlicht), Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt; Class Reunion – Works from the Gaby and Wilhelm Schürmann Collection, mumok, Vienna; Metamorphosis (c: Chus Martínez), Museo Castello di Rivoli, Rivoli; (2017) La fin le Babylone (c: Chus Martínez), KölnSkulptur#9, Cologne; (2016) 9. Berlin Biennale (2016).