Aung Myint was born in 1946 in Yangon, Myanmar. He earned a degree in psychology from Rangoon Arts and Science University in 1968. In 1989, he founded the Inya Gallery of Art in Yangon. Despite the governmental censorship and limitation of cultural life in Myanmar, Aung Myint has continued to make art that exists outside the boundaries of official edict. A self-taught artist, he began working primarily in paining and installation, extending his practice to include performance in 1995. Aung Myint experimented with medium and form to explore themes of cultural identity and personal memory.

Aung Myint’s series of monochromatic drawings, Mother and Child (2002-2008), turns single, unbroken lines of black acrylic into gestural forms loosely reminiscent of the pietà. The lines’ fluid continuity evokes the intimate physical connection of the two figures. Aung Myint’s work is informed by the artist’s feelings of loss and abandonment at the death of his mother when he was an infant, and can be interpreted as a self-portrait based on the universal theme of maternal relationship. His is the leading Myanmar Contemporary artist whose works are collected by museums in Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea and USA. His “White Stupa Doesn’t need Gold” painting is collected by Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Aung Myint received the Juror’s Choice Award at the Philip Morris Group of Companies ASEAN Art Awards in Bali (2002). He had 21 solo exhibitions and participated in more 100 group shows locally and internationally, more than 20 countries. He lives and works in Yangon.