Ema Shin
Ema Shin is a Japanese born artist with Korean heritage who lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne. Her interdisciplinary practice interrogates notions of femininity, sexuality, identity, and womanhood. Working predominantly in soft sculpture and tapestry, Shin turns a feminist lens to the erasure of women from history within her family, heritage and culture.
Absent women are represented in Shin works through soft sculpture facsimiles of human organs. While there is a connotation of the macabre, Shin’s bodily structures are ultimately beautiful. Hearts are made from soft cloth and embellished with beading, needlework and tapestry. Exquisite and delicate human structures are presented alongside botanic forms emphasising the patterns and growth from nature that lies within humanity.
AVAILABLE WORKS
-
Hearts of Absent Women #5
Vendor:Regular price $4,800 AUDRegular priceUnit price / per -
Hearts of Absent Women #12
Vendor:Regular price $7,500 AUDRegular priceUnit price / per -
Soft Alchemy (Tree Girl)
Vendor:Regular price $4,000 AUDRegular priceUnit price / per -
Soft Alchemy (womb for everyone)
Vendor:Regular price $18,000 AUDRegular priceUnit price / per -
Hearts of Absent Women #8
Vendor:Regular price $4,800 AUDRegular priceUnit price / per -
Hearts of Absent Women #16
Vendor:Regular price $8,000 AUDRegular priceUnit price / per
Collapsible content
CV
EMA SHIN
born Japan, arrived in
Australia 2010
QUALIFICATIONS
2005 Master of Fine
Art Degree, Aichi University of the Arts, Aichi, Japan
2003 Graduate Degree
in Printmaking, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024
Hearts of Absent Women, Gallerysmith, Melbourne (upcoming,
February)
2023
Hearts of Absent Women, Ararat Gallery Textile Art Museum
Australia, Victoria
Hearts of Absent Women, Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, New South
Wales
Hearts of Absent Women, Australian Design Centre, Sydney
2022
Hearts of Absent Women, Counihan Gallery, Melbourne
2017
Foyer Gallery, School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra
2013
Frisian Graphic Arts Museum, Joure, Netherlands
2012
Gallery ACS, Nagoya, Japan
Japan information & Cultural Centre, Consulate-General of Japan,
Melbourne
2010
Gallery ACS, Nagoya, Japan
2006
Gallery Kaede, Niigata, Japan
2005
Alternative Space Crack, Seoul, Korea
Meihodo Blanc, Nagoya, Japan
2004
Gallery APA F2, Nagoya, Japan
GROUP AND AWARD EXHIBITIONS
2023
My Heart, Platforms Arts Geelong, Victoria
Within My Skin, Arts Project Australia Gallery, Melbourne
A Soft Touch, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney
Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2023, Wangaratta Art Gallery,
Victoria
Women in Stitches, New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, New
South Wales
Hand Over Hand: Textiles Today, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, USA
Present Tending, Australian National Capital Artists Studio +
Gallery, Canberra
She of Mind and Body, Walker Street Gallery and Arts Centre,
Dandenong, Victoria
XV: PAST PRESENT FUTURE, Gallerysmith, Melbourne
2022
Even more beautiful IRL, Incinerator Galley, Melbourne
Victorian Craft Awards 2022, Craft Victoria, Melbourne
2021
Fresh Material: New Australian Textile Art, Perc Tucker Regional
Gallery, Townsville
Art Textile Biennial 2020 (touring), East Gippsland Art Gallery,
Victoria; Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Queensland; Barometer Gallery, New
South Wales
2020
McClelland National Small Sculpture Awards 2020, McClelland
Sculpture Park + Gallery, Victoria
Wyndham Art Prize 2020, Wyndham Art Gallery, Werribee, Victoria
2019
Place Makers, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne
The Curiosities, Mailbox Art Space, Melbourne
Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2019, Wangaratta Art Gallery,
Victoria
Take Time, Craft ACT: Craft + Design Centre, Canberra
2018
Chaozhou International Embroidery Art Biennale, Chaozhou, China
INTERIORITIES, Curated by Brooke Van Der Linden, The Artists Guild,
Melbourne
Conspicuous Presence, Curated by Women’s Art Register, Trocadero
Art Space, Melbourne
2017
Open House, 3rd Tamworth Textile Triennial (touring), Curated by
Glenn Barkley, Tamworth Regional Gallery, NSW ; Maitland Regional Art Gallery,
NSW; Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW; Artisan – Queensland’s Centre for
Craft and Design, Queensland; Broken Hill Regional Gallery, NSW; Murray Bridge
Regional Gallery, South Australia; Jam Factory at Seppeltsfield, South
Australia; Swan Hill Regional Gallery, Victoria; Town Hall Gallery, Victoria;
Blue Mountains Cultural Centre, NSW; Australian Design Centre, NSW
Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award 2017, Wangaratta Art Gallery,
Victoria
Victorian Craft Award 2017, Craft Victoria, Melbourne
2017
WINNER, Kate Derum Award for Small Tapestries, Australian Tapestry
Workshop, Melbourne
Selvedge, Virgin Melbourne Fashion Festival, Space at Collins,
Melbourne
Body and Cloth: Performing Textiles, Asia TOPA, Australian Tapestry
Workshop, Melbourne
2016
7th International Artist’s Book Triennial, Vilnius Book Fair,
Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO, Lithuania
2015
Error, 7th International Artist’s Book Triennial, Vilnius,
Lithuania
Irene Davies Emerging Artist Award for Small Tapestries, Australian
Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne
2014
Cutting Edge, Eastbank Foyer, Shepparton Art Museum, Shepparton,
Victoria
Tabi Wo Yomu – Artist Book, Akiba Tamabi 21, Tokyo, Japan
Organic Intimacy, Stephen McLaughlan Gallery, Melbourne; Ararat
Regional Art Gallery Town Hall, Ararat
Fertile Ground, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne
2013
HIGHLY COMMENDED, Irene Davies Emerging Artist Award for Small
Tapestries, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne
Beyond Words – Artists and Translation, Amelie Gallery, Beijing,
China; Wharepuke, Kerikeri, New Zealand
Soshun no Kosai, Pola Museum Annex, Tokyo, Japan
A Collection of New Works, Qdos Arts, Lorne, Victoria
2012
Love, 6th International Artist’s Book Triennial, Vilnius, Lithuania
and Leipzig, Germany
Linden Postcard show, Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts,
Melbourne
2011
The Butterfly Effect, Toyota Community Spirit Gallery, Melbourne
2009
3 Persons Exhibition, Gallery APA F2, Nagoya, Japan
2008
Japan Print Show, Northern Print Studio Gallery, Newcastle, England
2007
Jana Leo Kesho, PIAJI Artist in Residence, RaMoMa Gallery, Nairobi, Kenya
13th Sumio Kawakami Woodcut Grand Prix Competition, Museum Sumio
Kawakami, Japan
2005
Grabando, PIAJI Artist in Residence, Museo de los Pintores
Oaxacaquenos, Mexico
Independent-Image and Form 2005, Aichi Museum Gallery,
Nagoya, Japan
13th International Print Biennial Varna, Grafic Art Gallery, Varna,
Bulgaria
RESIDENCIES & GRANTS
2017 Artist in Residence, Australian
National University, Canberra School of Art, Canberra
2012 Artist in Residence, Australian
Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne, Australia
2010 The Researcher
Overseas Grant, Pola Art Foundation Japan, Melbourne
2010 Artist in Residence, Australian Print
Workshop, Melbourne
2009 European Capital
of Culture, International Artist’s Book Workshop, Vilnius, Lithuania
2007 Jana Leo Kesho, Yesterday Today
Tomorrow Kuona Trust Workshop, Nairobi, Kenya
2006 Mar a Tres
Riveras, On Three Sides of an Ocean, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia,
Valencia, Spain
2005 Grabando, Print
Juan Alcazar Studio, Rufino Tamayo Print Studio, Oaxaca, Mexico
2005 Quitate los
Zapatos, Kutsu O Nuide, Take off Your Shoes” Nagoya Art University, Printmaking
Studios, Nagoya, Japan
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cai, Sophia, ‘Filling the hearts of absent women’, Hearts of Absent
Women, Ema Shin, Exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, February 2022
Casamento, Daniella, ‘A New National Small Sculpture Award Draws Entries
from Emerging to Established Artists’, Agenda Matters, September 2020 VIEW ONLINE
Cormack, Bridget, Shin, Ema, ‘How to Embroider an Artwork’ The Weekend
Australian, News Corp Australia, Surrey Hills, 20-21 June 2020
De Boer, Janet. ‘The Embroiderers’ Guild’, Embroidery the Textile Art
Magazine, Aylesbury, March/April 2020
Rosa, Ellen, ‘Blak Douglas wins the Archibald, NFT artist Beeple and
embroidered organs that get personal’, The Art Show, radio Interview,
ABC Radio National, Broadcast Wed 18 May 2022 LISTEN ONLINE
Shin, Ema. Textile Fibre Forum #131, ArtWear Publications,
Ashburton, September 2018
Vannier, Charlotte, Threads, Contemporary Embroidery Art, Thames
& Hudson, London, 2019, pp 204-205
Vannier, Charlotte, DE FIL EN AIGUILLE – La broderie dans l’art
contemporain, Pyramid, Paris, 2018
Woven, Australian Tapestry Workshop, South Melbourne, 2017
COLLECTIONS
Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, Machida, Tokyo
Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
Bluestone Collection, Melbourne, Australia
RMIT Art Collection, RMIT University, Melbourne Australia
Tamworth Regional Art Gallery, Australia