Ema Shin

Born Japan | lives Melbourne

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; 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.

Shin obtained a residency at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2012 and has continued to work in textiles and the tapestry medium since that time. Her accolades include being Highly Commended in the 2013 Irene Davies Emerging Artist Award for Small Tapestries, winning the Kate Derum Award for Small Tapestries in 2017 and in the same year being selected for the 3rd Tamworth Textile Triennial (touring), curated by Glenn Barkley. 2017 saw her selected for the Chaozhou International Embroidery Art Biennale in China and in 2023 she was Highly Commended in the 10th International Artist’s Book Triennial in Lithuania which travelled to seven venues in Europe and the USA. The same year she was also shortlisted for the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award.

Shin has exhibited in curated exhibitions in Lithuania, USA, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Germany, England, Kenya, Mexico, Bulgaria and in curated projects, solo shows and art prizes throughout Australia.

AVAILABLE WORKS

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

2023
Hearts of Absent Women, Ararat Gallery Textile Art Museum, 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

2024        
Kate Derum Small Tapestry Award, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne

Porter St Launch, Gallerysmith, Prahran

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
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