Visual Artist
Printmaker
Art Educator
Born and raised in South Korea, Mizin Shin is a US-based visual artist. Regularly leading printmaking workshops with collaborating art organizations, Shin focuses on both traditional and contemporary printmaking practices while promoting a multidisciplinary approach to the medium. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions across the United States, Belgium, Spain, the UK, India, and South Korea. She was a juror for The Paths We Cross: Perspectives from the Korean Diaspora, 2022 Screenprint Biennial, and 2021 Southern Tier Biennial. Shin is the recipient of several fellowships and awards, including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship; the University of Rochester Humanities Center Faculty Fellowship; the Andrew & Barbara Choi Foundation Project Grant; and Genesee Valley Council on the Arts.
Mizin Shin graduated from Hong-ik University with a B.F.A in Printmaking and received her M.F.A from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Shin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Rochester as well as a co-founder of Mirabo Press in Buffalo, NY. She has served as a board member of the Mid-America Print Council and vice president of the Print Club of Rochester from 2020–22, and a board member of Visual Studies Workshop from 2023-25. Recently, Shin has published TeachPrint.com—a free resource of hypermedia educational materials for school teachers to promote printmaking in art classrooms.
Artist
Statement
Mizin Shin's work addresses interdependency throughout societal systems. It looks at the interconnectedness experienced as both an individual and as one of many elements in constructed systems.
Shin visualizes connections to depict these systems as networks interdependent on a large and continually increasing number of other social entities. By highlighting the density of intrinsic connections within and between multiple networks, the work presents all items of our systems as significant-from the individual elements to the larger constructs. Though they can be imperceptible from afar, these relationships are easier to pinpoint among simple things in our everyday lives. For example, in the manufacturing process of cookies, how many steps and systems are involved? How is each constituent part, such as milk, butter, or the cookie, related to other manufactured goods like aluminum and iron? Often surrounded by the work, viewers become a focal point in the network model, drawing awareness to their own position and
importance in these systems.
Shin's recent projects explore her experience as an immigrant, born and raised in South Korea and living in the United States for the past 10 years. Being separated from her family in Korea, while navigating her career and personal life, she continually negotiates shifting positions- whether in her career, relationships, or role in society as someone from a different culture. This search for balance informs much of her work. While many of her projects address social issues without depicting figures, both Exclusion & Inclusion and 中心 Balance turn inward, focusing on her own experiences and the challenges she often processes internally. The live performances incorporated in these projects serve as catalytic moments as she confronts and releases hardened emotions in real time.