"Somehow" Collage

Young Shin is a Los Angeles–based artist whose studio practice extends between Los Angeles and Madison, Wisconsin, working primarily with paper through processes of folding, tearing, layering, sanding, weaving, and compression. Her practice examines the tension between control and release—how material can be shaped with intention until it inevitably shifts, resists, or moves beyond the hand. Through these gestures, surfaces emerge with a quiet, topographic presence, holding fragility and resilience in equal measure and inviting the viewer into a space where restraint and surrender coexist.

Influenced by the quiet rigor of postwar abstraction and informed by her background in fashion design, Young approaches material with a sensitivity to structure, drape, and the nuanced behavior of fiber under pressure. Paper’s dual nature—delicate yet assertive, pliable yet irrevocably set once formed—anchors her practice both formally and conceptually, allowing process to function as both method and metaphor.

Her work is held in private, corporate, and hospitality collections internationally, including the Ritz-Carlton, Hyatt, Autograph Collection Hotels, UCSF Medical Center, Wells Fargo, Four Seasons, luxury spas and resorts, law firms, and multi-residential developments. Across her evolving series, Young investigates how subtle material shifts can carry emotional, spatial, and contemplative weight. Folded, compressed, and exposed planes operate as liminal thresholds—marking moments when intention yields to drift, resistance, and the slow settling of material over time.