#jeanshin

Photos: Etienne Frossard, Emma Lee/WHYY

Photos: MTA/Trent Reeves

On World Environment Day, we are looking at Jean Shin’s artwork which explores environments, urban and natural alike. Mass Transit helps to make NYC green, and Shin’s “Elevated” (2017), at Lexington Avenue-63rd Street, considers the evolution of the elevated train to the subway. The semi-transparent and reflective glass panels depict vintage scenes of the neighborhood seen from the elevated tracks, enabling passersby to see themselves mirrored in the cityscape of the past.  In her new installation “Allée Gathering” at Storm King Art Center, Shin works with salvaged maple trees from the grounds to create a monumental, communal picnic table, exposing each trees’ inner core. “Allée Gathering” brings attention to the landscape, to the constant changes that often go unnoticed, and to the challenging, labor-intensive work required to protect our natural environments.

Four #MTAArts artists’ work can be seen in the newly opened exhibit “Sedimentations: Assemblage as Social Repair” at The 8th Floor gallery.  The show concerns artists who reuse artifacts of our existence to reinterpret the cycles of creation, consumption, and waste.  Included are Shinique Smith - Detail from “Mother Clara’s Garden” (2013) at Mother Clara Hale Bus Depot pictured here; Jean Shin at Lexington Ave.-63rd Street (Q,F) & Broadway LIRR station; Michael Kelly Williams at Intervale Ave. (5); Maren Hassinger at Central Park North-110th St. (3).  

As eyes are tuned to the Olympic feats in South Korea, we call your attention 100 miles west of Pyeongchang, to the city of Icheon, the center of South Korean ceramic manufacturing, and the source for artist Jean Shin’s LIRR #MTAArts project, “Celadon Remnants” (2008), at the Broadway Station in Flushing, Queens.  Shin created large-scale mosaic murals featuring the shapes and silhouettes of traditional Korean pottery forms out of thousands of hand-selected celadon fragments donated by the city of Icheon.  Celadon wares are among the most widely admired of Korean ceramics. If a vessel is imperfect, it becomes scrap and joins the mountains of fragments in the Icheon region. Shin was determined to use these cast-off fragments, and the artwork serves as a metaphor for the history, culture, and identity of the Asian population in Queens.

Arts & Design was happy to partner with our friends at Open House New York over the weekend by providing an in-depth look at the art installed at the Second Avenue Subway.

At its annual conference last week, Americans for the Arts’ 2016 Year in Review honored the Second Avenue Subway art installations by Sarah Sze, Chuck Close, Vik Muniz and Jean Shin! Chosen by a jury from 325 entries from North America, awarded projects are considered among the best public art produced in the preceeding year.

It’s always Mother’s Day at 63rd Street/Second Ave where Jean Shin’s mosaic captures street life in the late 40’s and early 50’s as mother and daughter make their way across town.  Wherever your travels take you, have a very happy mothers day!