Fiery Hell 4, by Htein Lin

Htein Lin has embarked on the Hell series (which includes Bloody Hell, Fiery Hell, and Hell and High Water) in recent years to portray the plight of Myanmar’s rural populations, including ethnic and religious minorities, who have been caught up in the ongoing civil war, military air strikes and natural disasters. In Fiery Hell, red-gold flames surround figures, who carry children, the elderly and sick, and animals, fleeing villages set on fire.

Fiery Hell 3 and Fiery Hell 4 are part of a deeply committed body of work by Burmese artist Htein Lin, whose art is inseparable from his personal experience of imprisonment, political resistance, and human rights advocacy. These striking paintings confront the brutal reality of Myanmar’s ongoing civil war. The title Fiery Hell speaks not in metaphor but in stark reality — a world ravaged by violence, displacement, and collective trauma. The scenes depicted are infernos of war: burning landscapes, twisted bodies, and moments suspended between chaos and silence.

Painted on upcucled blankets, the works are both materially and symbolically resonant. These coarse, utilitarian supports evoke refugee camps and survival, transforming each piece into an artefact of memory and protest. Htein Lin uses bold gestures and a palette dominated by reds, blacks, and scorched ochres to convey a visceral, immediate sense of suffering and urgency.

The figures, often contorted or overlapping, are anonymous yet painfully human. In giving them form, the artist restores a measure of dignity to those rendered invisible by war — internally displaced people, civilians caught between warring factions, entire communities left to burn.

A former political prisoner who spent nearly seven years in jail for his democratic activism, Htein Lin creates art that testifies, resists, and insists on remembering. With Fiery Hell, he challenges us to face the unbearable, and to recognize — even in destruction — the enduring power of human expression.