Stephanie H. Shih is a ceramic artist whose painted sculptures explore diasporic identity and cultural migration. Her newest body of work chronicles its past and present through imperfect replicas of everyday items. Rendered in a medium malleable enough to yield to the artist’s touch and painted by hand, each sculpture fits into Shih’s object-based accounting of historical events and cultural touchpoints. The recreation of seemingly disparate objects—such as a restaurant sign, a toy train, a dry-cleaning hanger, and, here, a bottle of soy sauce with less sodium—shapes narratives that are at once playful and reflective.
Shih’s work has been exhibited in New York; Los Angeles; Miami; San Francisco; Portland, OR; Dallas; Boston; and Philadelphia. Among other accolades, Shih has recently been nominated for awards including the United States Artists Fellowship, the UOVO Prize at the Brooklyn Museum, and a permanent public artwork with the City of New York. Shih’s engagement with social issues extends beyond her craft; since 2017, she has raised over $100,000 for disenfranchised and immigrant communities facing material instability and deportation.
