New Directions/Jean Shin: Host

MONTCLAIR, N.J. - Aug. 30, 2013 - PRLog -- This fall season, the Montclair Art Museum (MAM) proudly presents New Directions/Jean Shin: Host, the third exhibition in MAM’s New Directions series, which showcases contemporary artists. It will feature the permanent installation of a major new outdoor sculpture, the first commission in an outdoor sculpture garden commemorating the Museum’s centennial. Titled Host, the sculpture by Jean Shin will be revealed September 22, 2013. It will be accompanied by related materials, including a video of the production of the sculpture, through January 15. The exhibition is organized by Alexandra Schwartz, MAM’s curator of contemporary art and founder of the New Directions series.

         One of today’s leading public artists, Jean Shin has worked directly with the MAM community to create Host specifically for the Museum. Fabricated from metal forks, knives, and spoons, many of which have been donated by residents of the Montclair area, Host takes the form of a life-size tree that has been severed into three parts: the stump, the trunk, and the branches. Using intimate, everyday objects from our homes to generate this image of nature, Host speaks to both the resilience and vulnerability within the community. The flatware serves as a metaphor for personal and family histories, symbolizing the ritual of the family meal, the passing-down of heirlooms, and the conceptions of “home” that are at once personal and universal. The imagery of the tree refers to the suburban landscape: a source of pleasure and reassurance, but also, in recent years especially, of anxiety, reminding us of our fragile existence in the face of pressing ecological issues and economic challenges. Host represents the constant balancing act between nature and culture.
         “While outdoor works of art have been a feature of the Montclair Art Museum since its very beginning in 1914, this installation marks the start of a new dedication to rethinking and, ultimately, transforming the grounds in honor of the Museum’s centennial,” says MAM director Lora Urbanelli. MAM’s centennial will be celebrated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony January 15, 2014, exactly 100 years to the day from its founding.

JEAN SHIN is nationally recognized for her monumental installations that transform everyday objects into elegant expressions of identity and community. For each project, she amasses vast collections of a particular object—prescription pill bottles, sports trophies, sweaters—which are often sourced through donations from individuals in a participating community. These intimate objects then become the materials for her conceptually rich sculptures, videos and site-specific installations. Distinguished by her meticulous, labor-intensive process, and her engagement of community, Shin’s arresting installations reflect individuals’ personal lives as well as collective issues that we face as a society.

Her work has been widely exhibited in major national and international museums, including in solo exhibitions at the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA (2012), Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona (2010), Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington DC (2009), the Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia (2006), and The Museum of Modern Art in New York (2004). Other venues have been the New Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Art and Design, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Asia Society and Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, Sculpture Center, and Socrates Sculpture Parkin New York City. Site-specific permanent installations have been commissioned by the US General Services Administration Art in Architecture Award, New York City’s Percent for the Arts and MTA Art for Transit. She has received numerous awards, including the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Architecture/Environmental Structures (2008) and Sculpture (2003), Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, and Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Art Award. Her works have been featured in many publications, including Frieze Art, Flash Art, Tema Celeste, Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, Artnews, and The New York Times. She is represented by Tierney Gardarin Gallery, New York.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, and raised in the United States, Shin attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 1999 and received a BFA and MS from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She lives and works in New York City.

The centerpiece of MAM’s new contemporary art program, the NEW DIRECTIONS series was founded in 2011 to bring new art to the Montclair community, engaging our audience with work that is at once accessible and thought-provoking. It spotlights emerging to mid-career artists working in all media, including painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, sound, digital, and performance art. Marking the launch of MAM’s new contemporary art program, New Directions debuted in Fall 2011 with Marina Zurkow: Friends, Enemies, and Others; working primarily in digital animation, Zurkow makes videos, prints, and objects exploring environmental themes. September 2012 saw the opening of Saya Woolfalk: The Empathics; Woolfalk examines issues of ethnic and gender identity through installations, textile-based sculptures, painting, video, and performance.

RELATED EVENTS

Free First Thursday Night – Artist Talk with Jean Shin
Thursday, October 3, 7 p.m.
FREE

MSU/MAM Art Talks
Women Artists of the New Millennium/Panel Discussion
Thursday, September 26, 7 p.m.
$12 Members, $15 Nonmembers, FREE for MSU staff and students. Call 973-259-5137 or visit montclairartmusuem.org for tickets.

Children's Etiquette Workshop
Saturday, December 14, 10 a.m.– Noon
Advance registration required, limited seating. Call 973-259-5137 or visit montclairartmusuem.org for tickets.
$18 Member, $20 Nonmember. Admission is for one child and one accompanying adult.

ONLINE PRESS SITE

The Museum will maintain a site dedicated to the exhibition for journalists seeking further information, including a checklist and images. Please visit montclairartmuseum.org/press-room (http://www.montclairartmuseum.org/press-room.php).