Kyungmi Shin, Monsters, Vases and the Priest

Sperone Westwater, New York | January 5 - February 24, 2024

Sperone Westwater is pleased to present Kyungmi Shin’s first solo exhibition at the gallery, “Monsters, Vases and the Priest,” with new paintings inspired by mythology and created in Rome.

The source for her heroic figures and central characters are vintage photographs from Shin’s own family album, as well as historic photographs of the Asian diaspora. “This kind of depiction of Asian character had been absent in the mainstream Western media and narratives, and I am actively seeking this alternative depiction of Asian persons,” says Shin. Layered over the photographic images, which are transferred onto gessoed wood panel, Shin paints chinoiserie landscapes and tapestries, fictional and fantastical depictions of Asian lands. “During my time in Rome, I began to think deeper about the how mythologies are created,” says Shin. “Being in the ancient city where the empire-building and colonization began and where the active building of mythology as a political tool was utilized, the intermixing of reality and fiction in historical and mythological narrative was rampant.” On top of the photographs and the chinoiserie and colonial depictions of Asia, Shin paints mythological creatures from Korean folk and shamanistic stories, as well as monsters and creatures from Christian narratives.

On the second floor, Shin shows works from her “Invisible Women” series representing Asian women, myth and fantasy. “I was exploring the real Asian female representation juxtaposed against the fantastical depictions of female bodies, the largely chinoiserie aesthetic of the rococo and the grotesque and curious mythological creatures from Western and Eastern mythologies,” says Shin. “I am actively using these complicated historical paintings to juxtapose against the photographs of the real Asians to challenge and play off of each other.”  

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