(L-R) Young Shin at work. Installation at Alhambra City Hall (Photos – Young Shin)
Through Oct. 26, Alhambra City Hall is presenting Bright Rupture: Works from the Rift Series, a solo exhibition of contemporary paper collage by artist Young Shin.
By Melanie Hooks
The exhibition brings a body of tactile, process-driven abstract work to one of Alhambra’s central civic spaces, offering residents and visitors an opportunity to encounter contemporary art outside a traditional gallery setting.
Shin’s work explores the tension between control and release through multilayered paper techniques, including folding, tearing, layering, sanding and compression. For the Rift series, she builds dense layers of vivid color, then repeatedly sands, peels and strips portions away to reveal earlier layers beneath the surface.
The resulting works examine accumulation and rupture, as well as the idea that what is removed can be as consequential as what remains. Shin describes the process as one of building through layers of color, abrasion, removal and return, in which “fracture becomes an opening; what is taken away remains present.”
Trained in fashion studies at Parsons School of Design, Shin approaches paper with a sensitivity to structure, layering and material behavior.
Her work is held in institutional and public collections, including UCSF Medical Center, Wells Fargo and the Henry Sheldon Museum. Her exhibitions have included venues such as the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles and Francis Gallery in Los Angeles.
Bright Rupture: Works from the Rift Series Through Oct. 26 Location Alhambra City Hall 111 S. First St. Alhambra, CA 91801
A view from Bright Rupture Installation at City Hall (Photo – Young Shin)
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