OCMA Exhibition

Kyungmi Shin: Father Crosses the Ocean
Curated by Cassandra Coblentz

I was invited to create a solo installation at the Orange County Museum of Art by Cassandra Coblenz, senior curator at OCMA.   It has been an amazing journey creating the artwork for the exhibit, “Father Crosses the Ocean” composed of porcelain portraits and tiles created in Jingdezhen, China, porcelain Chinoiserie objects made at my studio in Los Angeles, and large painted paintings.  

The exhibit opening was scheduled for April 17th 2020, but due to Covid-19 crisis, it will open later in the year and will run through the end of the year. 

Kyungmi Shin examines the impact of colonialism on cultural exchange through the lens of her family’s experience emigrating from South Korea to the United States. Through photocollages and porcelain busts she made of herself and her father, a Christian minister, Shin explores the influence of Eastern philosophy on Western culture. She looks to the history of the Chinese porcelain trade that gave rise to chinoiserie ceramics, which combined European and Asian elements, as emblematic of a cultural hybridity that resulted from European colonialism. In a style and technique borrowed from chinoiserie, she inscribes onto her self-portraits imagery from the story of the Monkey King, a famous Chinese (and pan-Asian) character who battles worldly temptations and inner demons to achieve spiritual enlightenment. Similarly, she decorates the busts of her father with references to monsters and demons in Medieval illuminated manuscripts depicting Christian stories, further highlighting parallels between Eastern and Western spiritual teachings.

Located in South Coast Plaza Village, OCMAEXPAND in SANTA ANA is the Museum’s temporary venue while it builds its Thom Mayne-designed new home at Segerstrom Center for the Arts.