Having relocated to Chicago from South Korea, Shin’s sculptures in ceramic, brass, concrete, and steel poetically consider the realities of distance, displacement, yearning, connection, and loss. Shin’s process originates with written poetry, words and terms from which are then formed through the physical dimensions and geographical placement of her own body and gestures. Over the past two years, Shin’s sculptures have extended beyond her own physicality, outwards into cultural systems that affect immigrant bodies– from the forms of the migrant laborer’s body to vessels for communion with other selves and home. 

CURRICULUM VITAE
Born 1981, Seoul, South Korea
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

EDUCATION
2011
Master of Fine Arts, Fiber and Material Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2007
Master of Fine Arts, Painting and Printmaking, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea

2004
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting and Printmaking, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea

SOLO & TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022
We, Dandelions, PATRON, Chicago, IL

2021
The Body of A Dreamer, PATRON, Chicago, IL

2020
Paths between Two Steps, Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago, IL

2019
A Collection of Tears 2012–Present, Bar 4000, Chicago, IL

2017
The Finger is Also Pressed by the Stone, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL
Semblance, LVL3, Chicago, IL
Awake, yet Asleep, Served Gallery, Trinity College, Palos Heights, IL

2016
On the surface of Abyss, A-B Project, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

2015
If Only A Glimpse, Outhaus, Urbana, IL
The Height Below, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL

2014
A Matter of Degrees, Peregrine Program, Chicago, IL

2012
Weave Between the Two, Korean Cultural Museum, Wheeling, IL

2011
Emotional DIY, Dittmar Memorial Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

2010
Weaving as Relationship, Gallery Uno, Chicago, IL


SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Dialogues, PATRON, Chicago, IL

2022
Skin in the Game, curated by Zoe Lukov, Chicago, IL

2020
An Echo, She Is, curated by Ruslana Litchzier, Chicago Manual Style, Chicago, IL
Four Flags, Chicago Manual Style, Chicago, IL
Into the Future, Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL
Something Blue, LVL3, Chicago, IL

2019
Between Land and Sky: Azadeh Gholizadeh, Luis Romero, and Soo Shin, EVERYBODY, Chicago, IL
Roni Packer, Susan Pasowicz, and Soo Shin, LVL3 via BARELY FAIR at Julius Caesar, Chicago, IL
Works on View, The Wing, Chicago, IL
Goldfinch Flatfiles, Goldfinch Gallery, Chicago, IL

2018
Local Comfort, LVL3, Chicago, IL
The ANNUAL: Mixtapes for the Next Millennium, curated by Jordan Martins, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL
Pocket Object (traveling exhibition), Juicebox Gallery, Kansas City, MO and Tusk, Chicago, IL
LtdWear3, LVL3, Chicago, IL
Latinx Nation, 18th Annual Auction, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL

2017
Employee of the Month, curated by Olivia McManus and Alex Tam, South of the Tack, Chicago, IL
Universal Love, 17th Annual Auction, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL

2016
Ignoble in Between, Site Lab, Grand Rapids, MI

2015
Jupiter Island, curated by Lauren Rose Fulton, Circuit 12 Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Moonlight Sleeping on a Midnight Lake, curated by ADDS DONNA, MANA Contemporary Chicago, Chicago, IL
Modern Individuality, Highcross, Urbana, IL
Work, Werq, curated by Jacqueline Chao and Adam Han Sifuentes, Flats Studio, Chicago, IL

2014
Interfaith Biennial, O’Connor Gallery, Domincan University, River Forest, IL
I am what I am doing, La Esquina Gallery, Kansas City, MO
No fate but what we make, curated by Joel Parsons, Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College, Memphis, TN

2013
Best of Heaven Show, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL
28th Annual Tallahassee International, Museum of Fine Arts, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL
What Goes Around, Attleboro Arts Museum, Attleboro, MA
Residuum, Scene Metrospace, Lansing, MI
Bound, juried by Cora Rosevear, Phoenix Gallery, New York, NY

2012
At That Very Moment, Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL
Utopia/ Dystopia, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
9th International Juried Exhibition, The Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts, Asbury Park, NJ
Midway Art Fair, Chicago, IL
Evanston and Vicinity Biennial, juried by Shannon Stratton, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL
Children of House of Love, Beige, Memphis, TN
INTERACTION, KCC Gallery, Wheeling, IL
REFRESHING, NOYSE Art Center, Evanston, IL
15th International Open, juried by Linda Warren, Woman Made Gallery, Chicago, IL

2011
Topophilia, Work*Detroit, University of Michigan, Detroit, MI
New Work, Sullivan Gallery, Chicago, IL
Afternoon Tea, Wilson Williams Gallery at the 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Biennale Collateral Exhibition, 54th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Readymade Self: an Homage to DuChamp, Bridge Gallery, Chicago, IL
SAIC MFA Thesis Show, Sullivan Gallery, Chicago, IL
INTIMACY, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL

2010
ART LOOP OPEN, Metro-market, Chicago, IL
Governor’s Island Art Fair, New York, NY
Materials of City, Sullivan Gallery, Chicago, IL
Soft Confines, Turn-Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Chicago Art Open, River East Art Center, Chicago, IL
Anatomy of a Circle, Gallery X, Chicago, IL

2009
Material Mixer, Tojo Gallery, Chicago, IL

2008
Sculpture as Medicine, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL

AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
2024
Artist in Residence, Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Woodside, CA

2022
Individual Artist Support 2022, Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL

2021
Individual Artist Support 2022, Illinois Arts Council, Chicago, IL
Artist in Residence, Arts and Industry Foundry, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI

2018
Artist in Residence, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI

2017
Artist in The Studios, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA

2016
Full Scholarship Award, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT

2015
Artist In Residence, ArtFarm, Marquette, NE
Summer Arts Faculty Residency Award, Ox-bow Artist in Residence, Saugatuck, MI
Breakout Artists 2015: Chicago’s Next Generation of Image Makers, Newcity

2014
Vilcek Foundation Fellowship, MacDowell Colony Artists Residency, Peterborough, NH

2012
Honorarium, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI

2011
Honorarium, Chicago Union League Foundation of Civic and Arts, Chicago, IL
World Less Traveled Grant, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, research/outdoor studio in Detroit, MI,
Finalist in Clare Rosen and Samuel Edes Foundation prize for emerging artists, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2009
Visual Artists Competition 3rd Place Award, Chicago Union League Foundation of Civic Arts, Chicago, IL

VISITING ARTIST LECTURES & PANELS
2020
Visiting Artist Lecture, Sophomore Seminar, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2017
Artist Lecture, Trinity College, Palos Heights, IL

2016
Visiting Artist Lecture, Scripps College, Claremont, CA

2014
Visiting Artist Lecture, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI

2013
Visiting Artist Lecture, Advanced Weaving, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2011
Visiting Artist Lecture, Korean-American Students Organization, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2010
Noon Hour Lecture, Fiber and Material Studies Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2009
Noon Hour Lecture, Fiber and Material Studies Department, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL


SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2021
“A Secret Desert in Chicago”, written by Gabriel Chalfin-Piney, Newcity

2020
Dee, Amanda. “A Projection Into ‘Paths Between Two Steps’ by Soo Shin”, Sixty Inches From Center, April

2015
“Artist of the Week: Soo Shin,” LVL3, June
“Soo Shin: Reflecting the Inner Void,” INSIDE/WITHIN, February
Morris, Matt, “Authority, Affirmation and Other Nomenclature,” Newcity, February

2013
“Featured Artist: Soo Shin,” Peripheral Arteries Magazine, April