Christine Shmigel (China)
April 1-30, 2016
A Foreigner’s Cabinet of Chinese Curiosities
Christina Shmigel’s installation will give visitors an opportunity to experience the day‐to‐day in Shanghai as she experienced in 2004, after moving there from St. Louis, Missouri. Visitors can experience the dislocating sense of wonder, frustration, puzzlement, and pleasure that accompanies the idea of “otherness.” Drawing on the principles of Chinese garden design, the layout of this installation will also respond to space. Several aspects will invite the viewer to interact with the works.
Christina Shmigel is an American sculptor and installation artist, who left a teaching career in 2004 to create art in Shanghai. Shmigel received an undergraduate degree in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, and graduate degrees in sculpture from Brooklyn College, NY, and in metalworking from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. From 1995-2004, Shmigel was an Associate Professor of Sculpture at Webster University, St Louis, Missouri, USA. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues nationally & internationally including solo shows at the St. Louis Art Museum & Laumeier Sculpture Park and the Duolun Museum in Shanghai. She has participated in residencies and group exhibitions in Korea, Australia, Austria, Canada, and Taiwan. Shmigel has also completed several large public and private commissions in the US including projects for Arts-in-Transit in St. Louis, MO and the Greensboro Public Library in North Carolina. In Shanghai, her work can be seen in a permanent installation at the Glamour Bar on the Bund.
