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Jean Shin (born 1971) is an American artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She is known for creating elaborate sculptures and site-specific installations using accumulated cast-off materials.


Personal life

Shin was born in
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
,
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
and moved to the United States when she was 6 years old, growing up in
Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House (1820, rebuilt 1849), which in ...
. Both of her parents who had been professors in Seoul took various jobs after moving to the
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
area, eventually owning a supermarket and liquor store. Shin was encouraged to pursue painting seriously in high school, and in 1990 during her senior year she entered the
Presidential Scholars Program The United States Presidential Scholars Program is a program of the United States Department of Education. It is described as "one of the Nation's highest honors for students" in the United States of America and the globe. The program was estab ...
competition in the arts and won a full scholarship to Pratt Institute in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. She received a B.F.A. in painting in 1994 and an M.S. in Art History and Criticism in 1996. She then worked at the
Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
in New York as a curatorial assistant. Since 1998, she has taught at the Pratt Institute as an adjunct professor. She also attended the
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture is an artists residency located in Madison, Maine, just outside of Skowhegan. Every year, the program accepts online applications from emerging artists from November through January, and selects 65 ...
in 1999.


Work

Shin is best known for her labor-intensive, sculptural process of transforming accumulations of cast-off objects into visually alluring, conceptually rich works. For each project, she amasses vast collections of a particular object—prescription pill bottles, sports trophies, sweaters—which are often sourced through donations from individuals in a participating community. These intimate objects then become the materials for her
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable ...
s,
video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...
and site-specific installations. Her works navigate the boundary between abstraction and representation, while considering both formal issues and cultural investigations. Shin's artwork references a wide range of art historical precedents, from minimalism, with its unyielding repetition of singular forms, to
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
, with its focus on traditional craft techniques, and Arte Povera, with its connection to everyday life. Her inventory of scavenged and obsolete materials includes worn shoes, lost socks, broken umbrellas, broken ceramics, discarded lottery tickets, and prescription pill bottles, all of which she accumulates in massive quantities. Shin then transmutes these finds through a meticulous process of deconstruction, alteration, and restoration. The resulting sculptures and installations consist of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of seemingly identical objects, each of which carries a multitude of potential meanings that inspire both personal and collective associations.
The focus shifts constantly in my installations between individual and group identity, the single unit and the larger whole, the intimate and the excessive. My elaborate work-process mirrors these dualities, as objects of mass production and consumerism are transformed through intense handmade labor.
Shin's work is included in New York City's Second Avenue Subway. In addition to Shin, fellow artists in the " extensive underground art museum funded and commissioned by
MTA Arts & Design MTA Arts & Design, formerly known as Arts for Transit and Urban Design, is a commissioned art program directed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the transportation systems serving New York City and the surrounding region. Since 198 ...
" include
Chuck Close Charles Thomas Close (July 5, 1940 – August 19, 2021) was an American painter, visual artist, and photographer who made massive-scale photorealist and abstract portraits of himself and others. Close also created photo portraits using a very l ...
,
Sarah Sze Sarah Sze (; born 1969) is an American artist widely recognized for challenging the boundaries of painting, installation, and architecture. Sze's sculptural practice ranges from slight gestures discovered in hidden spaces to expansive installat ...
and
Vik Muniz Vik Muniz (; born 1961) is a Brazilian artist and photographer. Initially a sculptor, Muniz grew interested with the photographic representations of his work, eventually focusing completely on photography. Primarily working with unconventional ma ...
. Shin's installation "Elevated" mosaics located at the Lexington Avenue–63rd Street station is based on early-20th-century photographs of the 2nd and 3rd Avenue elevated lines from the Transit Museum and New-York Historical Society archives.


Exhibitions

Shin's work has been widely exhibited in major national and international museums, including a 2004 solo project at
The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...
in New York,
The Fabric Workshop and Museum The Fabric Workshop and Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, is a non-profit arts organization devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally rec ...
in Philadelphia in 2006, and a solo exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in
Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...
in 2009. * 2018: "Jean Shin: Collections", The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia,PA * 2017: "MetaCloud",
Pioneer Works Pioneer Works is a non-profit cultural center in Red Hook, New York City. The center builds community through the arts and sciences to create an open and inspired world. It encourages radical thinking across disciplines by providing practitioners ...
, Brooklyn, NY; "MAiZE", Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University, Auburn, AL; "MAiZE", Figge Art Museum, Davenport, IA * 2016: "Surface Tension", Cristin Tierney Gallery, New York, NY * 2015: "Inclusions", Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, TX; "Links", Olson Gallery, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN; "Domesticated Landscapes", Mark Moore Gallery, Culver City, CA * 2013: "Host",
Montclair Art Museum The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) is located in Montclair, New Jersey, United States, a few miles west of New York City. Since it opened in 1914 as the first museum in New Jersey that granted access to the public and the first dedicated solely to a ...
, Montclair, NJ; "Intervals", The 13th KAFA Award Recipient Exhibition,
Korean Cultural Center Korean Cultural Centers (Korean: 한국문화원, Hanja: 韓國文化院) are non-profit institutions aligned with the Government of South Korea that aim to promote Korean culture and facilitate cultural exchanges. History Starting from 2009, th ...
, Los Angeles, CA * 2012: "Jean Shin and Brian Ripel: Retreat",
deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park The deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum is a 30-acre sculpture park and contemporary art museum on the shore of Flint's Pond in Lincoln, Massachusetts, 20 miles northwest of Boston. It was established in 1950. It is the largest park of its kind ...
, Lincoln, MA; "Recall", Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY * 2010: "Jean Shin and Brian Ripel: Unlocking",
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) in the state of Arizona is a museum in the Old Town district of downtown Scottsdale, Arizona. The museum is dedicated to exhibiting modern works of art, design and architecture. The Museum has four ...
, Scottsdale, AZ; "Pattern Folds",
Calvin Klein Collection Calvin Klein Collection (renamed Calvin Klein 205W39NYC in 2017 under then newly appointed creative director Raf Simons) was the brand name for the high-end designer womenswear and menswear lines from fashion house Calvin Klein which were presente ...
, New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Seoul, Korea * 2009: "Common Threads", Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC * 2008: "And we move", Location One, New York, NY * 2007: "Key Promises", Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York, NY * 2006: "TEXTile",
The Fabric Workshop and Museum The Fabric Workshop and Museum, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, is a non-profit arts organization devoted to creating new work in new materials and new media in collaboration with emerging, nationally, and internationally rec ...
, Philadelphia, PA * 2005: "Glasscape", Galerie Eric Dupont, Paris, France; "Accumulations", University Art Museum at University at Albany, Albany, NY * 2004: "Projects 81: Jean Shin",
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...
, New York, NY; "Recent Works", Frederieke Taylor Gallery, New York, NY; "Hide", Ulrich Museum, Wichita, KS * 2003: "Penumbra",
Socrates Sculpture Park Socrates Sculpture Park is an outdoor museum and public park where artists can create and exhibit sculptures and multi-media installations. It is located one block from the Noguchi Museum at the intersection of Broadway and Vernon Boulevard in th ...
, Long Island City, NY * 1999: "444",
Apexart Apexart is a non-profit art space located in Manhattan, New York, that focuses on challenging the gallery system and democratizing the process by which art is curated and exhibited. The organization was founded by Steven Rand in 1994. Exhibi ...
, New York, NY


Public commissions

* 2016 Elevated, MTA Arts & Design,
Lexington Avenue–63rd Street (63rd Street Lines) Lexington may refer to: Places England * Laxton, Nottinghamshire, formerly Lexington Canada * Lexington, a district in Waterloo, Ontario United States * Lexington, Kentucky, the largest city with this name * Lexington, Massachusetts, the oldes ...
, New York, NY; Reclaimed, City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, Seattle Public Utilities, North Transfer Station, Seattle, WA * 2014 100 Wishes, Maimonides Hospital, Brooklyn, NY * 2010 Settings, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art Commission, P/IS 276, Battery Park City, NY * 2008 Celadon Remnants, MTA, Arts for Transit Commission, LIRR Broadway Station, Queens, NY; Dress Code, US General Services Administration Art in Architecture Award, George Fallon Federal Building, Baltimore, MD


Collections

*
Boise Art Museum The Boise Art Museum (BAM) is located at 670 Julia Davis Drive in Boise, Idaho, and is part of a series of public museums and cultural attractions in Julia Davis Park. It is the permanent home of a growing collection of contemporary realism, mod ...
, Boise, Idaho * Calvin Klein Corporate Art Collection, New York, NY * Chaney Family Collection *
Chase Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fin ...
Corporate Art Collection * Citicorp Corporate Art Collection * City of
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
, Office of Arts and Culture * Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio * Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania *
Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...
, Honolulu, Hawaii *
Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. ( ) was an American global financial services firm founded in 1847. Before filing for bankruptcy in 2008, Lehman was the fourth-largest investment bank in the United States (behind Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, a ...
, London * Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, New York * Metropolitan Transit Authority, Arts for Transit, Queens, New York * Microsoft Corporate Art Collection *
Montclair Art Museum The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) is located in Montclair, New Jersey, United States, a few miles west of New York City. Since it opened in 1914 as the first museum in New Jersey that granted access to the public and the first dedicated solely to a ...
, Montclair, New Jersey *
Museum of Glass The Museum of Glass (MOG) is a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m²) art museum in Tacoma, Washington, dedicated to the medium of glass. Since its founding in 2002, the Museum of Glass has been committed to creating a space for the celebration of the st ...
, International Center of Contemporary Art, Tacoma, Washington * Neuberger Berman Collection * The Percent for Art Program of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York, New York * The Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts *
Smithsonian Museum of American Art The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...
, Washington, District of Columbia * Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York * Surdna Foundation, New York, New York * Sweet Blair College, Art Gallery, Virginia * Ssamzie Collection, Seoul Korea * Ulrich Museum of Art, University of Wichita, Wichita, Kansas * U.S. General Services Administration, Art in Architecture, Baltimore, Maryland *
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...
, Hartford, Connecticut * The West Family Collection


Recognition

* 2018 Wave Hill Winter Workspace Residency, New York, NY * 2017 Pratt Alumni Achievement Award * 2016 Artist in Residence, Material for the Arts, Long Island City, NY * 2012 KAFA Award for the Visual Arts, Korea Arts Foundation of America * 2008 New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship Award in Architecture/Environmental Structures * 2007-08 Location One International Residency Program, New York, NY * 2006-07 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant * 2004-05 Dieu Donne Papermill, Studio Workshop Residency, New York, NY; Lower East Side Printshop, Special Editions Fellow, New York, NY * 2004 Creative Capital Professional Development Workshop, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation * 2003-06 Fabric Workshop and Museum, Artist Residency, Philadelphia, PA * 2003 New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship Award in Sculpture; Art Omi International Artists Residency, Brooklyn NY; BCAT/Rotunda Gallery Residency, Brooklyn, NY * 2001 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Art Award; Asian Cultural Council Fellowship * 1992 Vermont Studio Center, International Residency Program, Johnson, VT * 1990-04 Charles Pratt Scholar, Full Merit Scholarship and Pratt National Talent Search First Place, Brooklyn, NY * 1990 United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts (selected by the White House Commissioners); National Foundation for the Advancement for the Arts Award


References


External links


Jean Shin on the web
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shin, Jean American contemporary artists 1971 births Living people Artists from Seoul 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists South Korean emigrants to the United States Pratt Institute alumni Pratt Institute faculty Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture alumni American women academics