Kyungmi Shin was born in South Korea (1963) and lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. She received an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley (1995). Working with painting, sculpture and photography, Shin explores various histories, identities and migrations by interrogating colonial, capitalist and religious global expansion and its effect. Shin has presented works at Craft Contemporary, Los Angeles (2024); Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (2024); Sperone Westwater (2024); Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (2023); Various Small Fires (2023; 2021-22); Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2022); Galerie Marguo, Paris (2022); Orange County Museum of Art, CA (2020-21); J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2021); Japanese American National Art Museum, Los Angeles (2008-09); Torrance Art Museum, CA (2008); The Berkeley Art Museum, CA (2007); and Art Sonje Center, Seoul (2000). Shin has received numerous grants including California Community Foundation Grant, City of Los Angeles Master Artist Grant (COLA), Durfee Grant and Pasadena City Individual Artist Fellowship. Her work is part of the permanent collections at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ. She has completed over 20 public artworks, and her most recent public video sculpture was installed at the Netflix headquarters in Hollywood, CA (2018). Shin is represented by Various Small Fires, Los Angeles / Dallas / Seoul.
Jody Zellen reviews "Kyungmi Shin: Origin Stories" at Craft Contemporary for Visual Art Source.
She writes, "In Kyungmi Shin’s exhibition, “Origin Stories,” the Korean-born, Los Angeles-based artist explores past and present through a thoughtful intermingling of ceramics, sculpture and painted photographs. Her complex works investigate both female and Asian identity and ancestry through art historical representations while also referencing contemporary culture. She mines personal photographic archives, enlarging photographic snapshots and then tracing aspects of them with gold and silver painted lines. She also explores traditional Asian patterning, often presenting her original ceramic objects in combination with authentic traditional pieces. The confusion between the two kinds of objects questions the notions of contemporary and traditional."