How I got back the energy and confidence to keep doing…

By: Chaw Ei Thein In 2006, I came to New York for a yearlong artist residency program and during that time, I was warned that my safety could not be assured if I were to return to Burma. The reason I could not return was my artwork, interviews I had given with the international media […]

SAVE THE DATE! APRIL 25 – fD Exhibition Fundraiser – FRAGILE STATES

freeDimensional in partnership with the Brian Morris Gallery invites you to attend a group exhibition launch and fundraiser, Fragile States, on April 25, from 6-9PM. Fragile States is an exploration of the physical and psychological experiences of persecution and forced displacement. The artists featured in the exhibition share a common experience of having to leave […]

1ST BREAK OUT : Exhibition by Kyaw Thu – 25-27 May – New York City

First Breakout — Artistic Expressions from the Heart — Exhibition by Kyaw Thu “I have been denied all rights to artistic creation in Myanmar since September 2007, when I offered alms and water to monks walking in peaceful protest and reciting prayers of love during the Saffron Revolution, all the way to my current visit […]

Chaw Ei Thein featured in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Project Newsletter

Chaw Ei Thein (2011 Mentee Alum, Burma), is a painter and performance artist whose work stems from her contrasting experiences of growing up in a politically oppressive Burma and then shifting to a very different landscape in the United States. Chaw Ei’s emotionally charged work of addressing these conflicts in her native country has earned her […]

fD participates in Creative Time’s ‘Living as Form’ exhibition – Friday, September 30 @ Essex Street Market

On Friday, September 30, from 4pm to 8pm, performance artist and painter Chaw Ei Thein and radio journalist Lawman Lynch will create “social space” in Creative Time’s ‘Living as Form’ exhibition at the Essex Street Market. [www.creativetime.org/livingasform] Transit Lounge/Waiting Room captures the experiences of fD’s New York stakeholders (artists displaced from their home countries as […]

Being (T)here: Creating in the Borderlands

Last night (6 Dec 2010) at the historic Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City, writer/painter Breyten Breytenbach (South Africa), poet/painter Huang Xiang (China), and performance artists Chaw Ei Thein and Ye Taik (Burma) explored the concept of Art in Exile via text, conversation, and live performances. freeDimensional has been working with Chaw ei Thein over […]

Chaw ei Thein Fights Burma’s Junta with Performance and Paintings {World Policy Blog #3}

In one of the busiest street markets in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma), Chaw Ei Thein and a friend, the artist Htein Lin, created a performance to comment on the inflated prices under the current Burmese government. They sold small items like candy and ribbons for miniscule amounts of money. They were arrested, and would have been jailed […]