SHIN GALLERY

Finding the beauty in anything often begins with desire, and it’s the insatiable desire to collect, curate, and sell dazzling arrays of things of beauty that drives Hong Gyu Shin, the founder of Shin Gallery.

Stepping into his gallery is to travel into the universe of his highly cultivated and idiosyncratic taste. One day, you’ll find work by contemporary Korean artists, another it will be art from the 80s coexisting with Indigenous artists, or Van Gogh next to Lucio Fontana alongside these artists’ personal letters, candid photographs, art books, and mementos.

The gallery features three upstairs rooms for viewings, creating an intimate yet museum-like atmosphere. Down in the basement is “Shin Haus”, where the Shin tests new ideas and hosts intimate conversations. It also serves as his office, and you can often find him there with a good story on the tip of his tongue, he’s itching to tell.

Hong Gyu Shin founded his gallery in 2013, when he was just twenty-three years old. Born in the small industrial town of Ulsan, South Korea, he came to the United States at the age of sixteen to study art conservation and international art history at the University of Delaware. He started selling artworks out of his dorm room and showcasing his personal collection of Korean artists. In 2017, he moved into the Orchard Street space, where he has been pushing the boundaries of what it means to curate, collect, and sell art ever since.