“One Life: Maya Lin” at the National Portrait Gallery

Born to Chinese immigrant parents in 1959, Maya Lin grew up amidst the streams, woods, sandstone cliffs, carpets of moss, and wildlife of rural Ohio. “Looking back, I realize I led a very insulated and isolated childhood,” she says. Her mother and father were professors, and she credits them with cultivating her creativity and intellectual curiosity. For Lin, “Each project becomes a way for me to learn about a new field, whether it is aerospace engineering, the study of light, or the history of civil rights.”

In 1981, after her design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was selected from 1,421 entries, Lin was unwittingly thrust into the limelight. Four decades later, she remains one of the most influential artists and architects of our time. Best known for her large-scale, site-specific installations, architectural works, and memorials, Lin also creates intimate studio artworks. The common thread, she notes, is “the love and respect I have for the natural world.” — National Portrait Gallery

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