Eva Lin Fahey 张雯林 (she/her) was born in Jingmen, China during the One Child Policy (in place from approximately 1979-2016). She is a visual artist with a studio in Florence, MA. A transracial adoptee, she became a US citizen at age 3. Since completing a BFA Magna Cum Laude in Painting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst within the Commonwealth Honors College, she has exhibited across Massachusetts — Amherst, Easthampton, Holyoke, Northampton, South Yarmouth, Ware, and Wilmington — as well as in El Dorado, Arkansas. Eva was a 2023 ValleyCreates Capacity-Building grantee through MASS MoCA’s Assets for Artists program. Her work was featured in AGNI’s Afterlives: An AGNI Portfolio of Asian Adoptee Diaspora Writing. Eva creates work that investigates her origins and the diaspora of girls from China through international adoption.
Statement
My work begins with a violent wiping of the slate—biologically, phonetically, and geographically—created by the wide-reaching impact of China’s One-Child Policy. From this erasure, I move forward through the intentional re-learning of language and culture, centering my work on narratives of ancestral memory and loss. It asks for pause, patience, and vulnerability in grief and growth. I explore the complexity of adoptee loss by drawing past and future ghosts into the messiness of the present, considering how loss follows my experience within the Asian adoptee diaspora.
Contextualized by my experience of motherhood, my work also examines the implications of personal choice within larger systems of control, migration, and cultural identity. I explore how individual decisions are shaped, limited, or influenced by societal expectations and historical forces, such as the One-Child Policy and the complexities of adoption. My work seeks to understand how personal autonomy intersects with broader narratives of belonging, displacement, and survival, flowing in spaces of tension, stillness, and unresolved longings.
CV
Education
2018 BFA Painting, Art History Minor: University of Massachusetts Amherst, Commonwealth Honors College. Magna Cum Laude
Collections
The Art Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, It Feels Different With You Here, Amherst, MA
Publications
Looky Here, Looky Here Magazine: Spring 2024 Edition, March 2024
Aisthesis, Volume 9, Dalia in Mill River, May 2018
Exhibitions:
Solo
Our Sea (Your Ghost Haunts My Shores), Augusta Savage Gallery, Amherst, MA. April 2025
(forthcoming)
(forthcoming)
Lost (Together), Hosmer Gallery, Northampton, MA July 2023
What I Brought (away from the Motherland), ECA Gallery, Easthampton, MA. November 2022
In Lieu of Flowers, ECA Gallery, Easthampton, MA. January 2021
Origins: It Feels Different With You Here, Hampden Gallery, Amherst, MA. April–May, 2018
In Flux: The Motion of Change, The Cultural Center of Cape Cod, South Yarmouth, MA. November–December 2017
Group
Field Trip, Elusie Gallery, Easthampton, MA July 2024
Blue, ArtWorks Gallery, Ware, MA. January – February, 2024
A Celebration of AWE: Sharing the Artworks of ECA’s Past & Present Studio Residents, MAP Space, Easthampton, MA. November 2022
Motherhood, Small Works Gallery, Gateway City Arts, Holyoke, MA May 2022
Night Shift, MAP Gallery, Eastworks, Easthampton, MA. May 2019
Going Within: Self-Portraiture as Medicine, MAP Space, Eastworks, Easthampton, MA. October 2018
South Arkansas Arts Center Annual Juried Art Competition, Price and Merkle Galleries, El Dorado, AR. July – August 2018
5th Annual Juried Show, Gallery A3, Amherst, MA. June 2018
Junior/Senior Awards Show, Herter Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. May 2018
Cheap Art Show II, Student Union Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. May 2018
Science and Art Exhibition, Student Union Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. April 2018
Student Union Art Gallery's 4th Annual POP Show, Student Union Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. March, 2018
Carbon, Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, Wilmington, MA. February–April, 2018
Carbon, Herter Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. February, 2018
Manifold Curiosity, Mahar Auditorium, Amherst, MA. December 2017
Cheap Art Show, Student Union Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. December 2017
Small Works Show, Hope and Feathers Gallery, Amherst, MA. November 2017-January 2018
8x8 Fundraiser, MAP Space, Eastworks, Easthampton, MA. November 2017
BOOX: Bound and Unbound Artist Books, Lee Edwards Gallery, Amherst, MA. September 2017
Living Pictures: A Collection of Conversations, Student Union Art Gallery, Amherst, MA. April 2017
HFA Student Showcase 2017, UMass Amherst, April 2017
Covalence, Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry, Wilmington, MA. March-April 2017
Collaborative Aggregates and UMass Art Department Student Scholarship Exhibition, Lee Edwards Gallery, Amherst, MA. December 2016
HFA Student Showcase 2016, UMass Amherst, April 2016
Residencies, Grants, Scholarships, and Awards
ValleyCreates Capacity-Building grant, MASS MoCA's Assets For Artists Program, 2023
Mass Cultural Council’s Cultural Sector Recovery Grant, 2022
Art Workspace Easthampton (AWE): A Residency Program for Visual, Literary & Performing Artists. Easthampton City Arts (ECA) Easthampton, MA. November 2020- January 2021
1st Place Studio Arts Award, juried by Department of Art faculty and awarded to one graduating senior, University of Massachusetts Art Department, May 2018
Art Acquisition Award, juried by the Department of Art Chair, University of Massachusetts Art Department, May 2018
UMass Arts Council Mini-Grant: for the solo show, Origins: It Feels Different With You Here, April 2018
UMass Arts Council Single Project/Event Grant for the group show, "Manifold Curiosity", December 2017
Collaborative Aggregates Studio Art Scholarship, October 2017
Cecelia Siemen Scholarship in the Visual Arts, May 2017
Eleanora Johnson Scholarship – Scholarship from juried Junior/Senior Awards Show, Junior Award First Place, May 2017
UMass Arts Council Mini Grant for the animation, "Planet", December 2016
Collaborative Aggregates Studio Art Scholarship, October 2016
University Museum of Contemporary Art Banner Design Winner, 2016