About
Shin Je Heon (b. South Korea) is a sculptor whose practice investigates the concept of the affective body—a body shaped by entangled emotions, inner imagery, and perceptual experience. His research explores the “inner eye” (siman) as a site where unconscious sensations, memory, and emotion are translated into form. Moving beyond anatomical representation, Shin constructs fragmented and interwoven bodily structures that embody psychological states and relational tensions.
His work emphasizes visual tactility, engaging the viewer not only through form but also through the suggestion of touch, weight, and material resistance. Through processes such as molding, layering, and distortion, he creates sculptural surfaces that register traces of action and emotional intensity. His recent works move toward greater abstraction and symbolic reduction, emphasizing curved, simplified masses that retain a sense of organic ambiguity. Through this process, the body becomes less a representation and more a condition: a vessel of accumulated sensations, suspended between visibility and invisibility, presence and dissolution.
Shin received his MFA and BFA in Environmental Sculpture from the University of Seoul and is currently pursuing a PhD in Sculpture at Kookmin University. His solo exhibitions include Coo Coo Che (One Fifth, 2025), Collapsing Molds and Twisting Castings (The Necessaries, 2023), and Point of View (KEPCO Art Center, 2013). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions across South Korea, including Hyphen-Jungnang (Jungnang Art Center, 2025) and Phantom Vibrations (The Necessaries, 2024). In addition, he is scheduled to participate in the Changwon International Sculpture Biennale in 2026.
He has been awarded the Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture RE:SEARCH Grant (2024) and was selected for the Seoul Public Art Project “25” (2021), among others. In 2023, he participated in the 16th Gyeongnam Art Creative Center residency. Shin continues to expand his sculptural language through research into material processes, embodied perception, and the intersection of emotion and form.