Jean Shin

Jean Shin is known for meticulously gathering massive quantities of mundane objects and transforming them into beautiful works of art. She has created elaborate sculptures and site-specific installations out of melted vinyl records, discarded computer keyboards, empty wine bottles, scratched-off lottery tickets, prescription pill bottles, donated clothing, and broken umbrellas. The resulting artworks can be appreciated on a formal level as stunning abstract compositions, and on a conceptual one as vehicles for investigating notions of community, identity, consumption, technology, and communication. Serving as catalysts for memories and personal associations, Shin’s works encourage the viewer to see the many cast-off objects of contemporary life in new and thought-provoking ways.

Shin received a BFA and an MS from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Her installations have been exhibited in various museums and cultural institutions abroad and in the United States, including a solo show at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2004. She has received numerous awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Art Award. Dress Code is Jean Shin’s first permanent, public art commission.