Northampton, MA—Cultural identity is an important theme in a series of provocative paintings by artist Jieun Shin on display in the East Gallery of the Northampton Center for the Arts from April 2-29, 2010. The exhibition features an opening reception hosted by the artist on Friday, April 9 during Northampton's Arts Night Out, 5pm-7pm. Regular gallery hours are 11am-4pm, Tuesday-Friday.

Jieun Shin’s work is a map of her experience as both an artist and as a Korean immigrant. Pieces of furniture, shadows of figures, and ghostly geometric shapes collide in weightless melee in her watercolors. IKEA shelving units and small groups of fish swim side by side while sofa-carrying silhouettes float their burdens through the dream-like space.

"I wanted to represent my psychological distance to my homeland by juxtaposing my culture with something from my immediate surroundings in North America,” Shin says. “I found dissonance among the IKEA furniture and ersatz antique furniture that I have brought from Korea. For me, IKEA has become a symbol of cultural dislocation."

Shin's paintings struggle with the loss of cultural identity, combining patterns from historic Korean textiles and embroidery with western images of mass-production. "I consider my work a surrogate portrait of a migrant. My intention is to explore my individual identity as an artist in relation to the complex (visual ) histories of different worlds."

Jieun Shin earned her M.F.A. from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea and has exhibited her work internationally including shows at the Catherine Schultz Gallery in Cambridge, MA and the Duckwon Gallery in Seoul, Korea.