Photo: Tom Zhou
ZHARIA SHINN is the queen of paper collage! Practicing in New York, she explores the distortion of pre-existing visual aesthetics and creates a new context for her psychological paper portraits. She is interested in broadening the context of conversation that surrounds the visual representation of beauty and identity of the African Diaspora. While referencing and distorting existing photographs of her subjects, she dresses them in an array of mediums such as, but not limited to; fabric, printed posters, paint swatches, decorative paper, and magazines. Inspired by puzzles, quilts in African- American history, family, and some of the collage greats such as Faith Ringgold, Shinn continues to build upon her unique collage style and approach to portraiture.
Shinn received a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI in 2018. Her work has since then been presented internationally and domestically in group exhibitions, art competitions, publications, magazines and much more. She has had the pleasure of participating in group exhibitions at Brooklyn Collective Gallery, Charlotte, NC (2022); Dobbin Street, Greenpoint, NY (2022); Dedee Shattuck Gallery, Westport, MA (2018); Gelman Gallery, Providence, RI (2018); Designforum, Vienna, AT (2018); ISB Gallery, Providence, RI (2018); Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI (2018); The Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA (2018); Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI (2017) Red Eye Gallery, Providence, RI (2015).
Shinn has been awarded multiple awards, including the American Illustration 38 (2018); 3x3 Illustration Annual No.15 (2018); Rhode Island School of Design: John Randall Orth Award (2018); American Illustration 37 (2018); Communication Arts Magazine 59th Annual Award (2018); SILA Illustration West 56: Gold Award (2017).