FOO MAY LYN began her artistic life as a 13-year old performer in the late '70s with Teater Kanak-kanak Malaysia, an experimental children's theatre project run by the formidable and committed theatre practitioner, Janet Pillai.
Everything truly stems from here: that rare and invaluable sense of empowerment given to a child. Here, she was also exposed to the wide spectrum of myths, legands and performance traditions of Malaysia's multicultural heritage.
She then worked as a journalist for three years.
She has worked in theatre, dance, film and Festival productions under the direction of Krishen Jit, Marion D'Cruz, Ann Lee, Dinsman, Nasir Jani, Jo Kukathas, Chee Sek Thim of Malaysia, Ivan Heng, Claire Wong, Ong Keng Sen of Singapore, Agnes Limbos of Belgium, and Koike Hiroshi of Pappa Tarahumara, Japan.
She was one of the performers of "Cry Of Asia", a year long theatre project which toured Europe for six months in 1989. She was also a memeber of CommonLore Storytellers in London where she lived for eleven years.
In the last decade, May Lyn has focused on producing drawings, jewellery, toys and books.
Her talisman "jewellery" which were featured in Paris' Elle Magazine, and bought by Christian Lacroix were sold and exhibited (2008) in Paris where she lived for 12 years.
In 2005, she was parf of a group exhibition entitled "Crowds" at Reka Art Space.
In August 2010 May Lyn held her very first solo exhibition of drawings and embroidered artwork in a collectioncalled COMING HOME at Straits Cafe to notable acclaim.
Her work continues to fascinate cultural producers for their allegorical resonance of deep human experiences through detailing that is naive, spontaneous and surprising.
