Juin SHIEH was born in Taiwan’s Miaoli County in 1961. She graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of the National Taiwan Normal University in 1984, and proceeded to earn an M.F.A. at the Pratt Institute in New York. In 1995, SHIEH received her D.F.A. at the NYU Steinhardt School. She currently teaches at the NTHU Department of Arts and Design. SHIEH’s works have been frequently exhibited at institutions such as the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, the National Museum of History, the Art Bank and White Rabbit Gallery, making her an exemplary figure among Taiwan’s female artists.
SHIEH’s works are mostly rooted in her own experience. By imbuing her creation with introspection and self-analysis, the artist aims to explore the significance of life in a contemporary setting. She takes inspiration from the experiences of her multiple identities, including daughter, wife, mother, scholar and artist. This allows her to enrich her works with multi-layered visuals and intertextuality in order to fully express the energy of women as well as to explore depth of the female body and consciousness. SHIEH’s work contains elements of sketches and paintings as she uses both paint and charcoal pencil in her process. This allows her to draw lines that take on the characteristics of sketching and painterly quality. By intertwining the two mediums, the artist manages to develop a new visual signature.