Stephanie H. Shih American, b. 1986
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Biography
Stephanie H. Shih (b. 1986, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was born to Taiwanese immigrant parents and initially spent over a decade as a copywriter and creative director before turning to ceramics as a therapeutic response to chronic pain in 2015. Her practice began with hand-folded porcelain dumplings—tactile, intimate objects that sparked a wider series of pantry-item sculptures. She deepened her work’s reach by crowdsourcing ideas from social media, transforming everyday products like Spam, sausage, and Hawaiian buns into meditations on colonial influence and shared diasporic memory. Critics note that her ceramics are as much a political commentary on assimilation as they are aesthetically compelling. Shih often creates overnight in her Brooklyn apartment studio, preferring the quiet and tactile focus of late-night work.
Shih's ceramic and porcelain sculptures have been exhibited widely in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Portland, Dallas, Boston, and Philadelphia, including in the 2023 solo exhibition Greetings From Gold Mountain at Berggruen Gallery, which featured over 40 ceramic objects drawn from San Francisco’s Chinatown. Since 2017, Shih has leveraged her practice and platform for activism, raising over $650,000 to support disenfranchised and immigrant communities facing housing instability and deportation—demonstrating that for her, art and social justice are inseparable.
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Public Collections
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford, California
Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, Vermont
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Syracuse University Art Museum, Syracuse, New York
New-York Historical Society, New York
John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WisconsinHonors & Awards
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, 2025
UOVO Prize finalist, Brooklyn Museum, 2023
American Museum of Ceramic Art, grant support, 2020Residencies & Fellowships
The Corporation of Yaddo, Residency and Access Grant, Saratoga Springs, New York, 2024
Arts/Industry Residency, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 2023
Installation Residency, Manitoga, The Russel Wright Design Center, Garrison, New York, 2023
NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, 2023
Silver Art Projects Fellowship, New York, New York, 2022
Lighthouse Works Fellowship, Fishers Island, New York, 2022 -
Exhibitions
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55 Years
Isn't That Long Enough? Jun 26 – Aug 14, 2025Featuring paintings, works on paper, sculpture, film, and archival ephemera from the SFMOMA Library, and SFAI archive, this ambitious exhibition showcases museum-quality works by contemporary and historical artists, illustrating Berggruen...View More -
California Gold
Jun 20 – Jul 25, 2024Exhibiting Artists:View More
Tauba Auerbach | John Baldessari | Larry Bell | Helen Berggruen | Sarah Blaustein | Katherine Boxall | Val Britton | Christopher Brown | Andy Burgess | Dean Byington | Bruce Cohen | Adriane Colburn | Travis Collinson | Mark di Suvero | June Edmonds | Charles Gaines | Daniel Gibson | Isca Greenfield-Sanders | Michael Gregory | Stephen Hannock | Sarah Hotchkiss | Seth Kaufman | Clare Kirkconnell | Matt Kleberg | Anna Kunz | Charles Lee | Barry McGee | Klea McKenna | Tom McKinley | Vanessa Marsh | Richard Misrach | Nicole Mueller | Ed Ruscha | Richard Serra | Jillian Shea | Stephanie H. Shih | Kyle Warren Smith | Joni Sternbach | Marie Thibeault | Dani Tull | Darren Waterston | Griff Williams | Jonas Wood | Christopher Woodcock -
Stephanie H. Shih
Greetings from Gold Mountain Feb 23 – Mar 25, 2023Berggruen Gallery is proud to announce Greetings from Gold Mountain, an exhibition of recent ceramics by Stephanie H. Shih. This show marks her first solo exhibition with the gallery. Greetings from Gold Mountain will be on view from February 23 through March 25, 2023. The gallery will host a reception for the artist on Thursday, February 23, from 5:00 to 7:00 pm.View More
Stephanie H. Shih’s painted ceramic sculptures negotiate the dynamic narratives within contemporary Asian American identity. San Francisco—originally known in Chinese as 金山, or Gold Mountain—is the site of America’s oldest Chinatown, and Shih’s newest body of work chronicles its past and present through imperfect replicas of everyday items. Rendered in a medium malleable enough to yield to the artist’s touch and painted by hand, each sculpture fits into Shih’s object-based accounting of historical events and cultural touchpoints. Ultimately, it is the juxtaposition of seemingly disparate objects—a restaurant sign, a toy train, a dry-cleaning hanger—that creates for a narrative of America’s first Chinese enclave that’s at once playful and reflective.
Some references are easy to miss; if you didn’t know that Jeremy Lin grew up in the Bay Area, you might have missed the connection to Knicks Linsanity Cap (2012). A stack of four unrelated VHS tapes—a classic film noir, an experimental arthouse movie, a fantastical action-comedy, and a Tony Hawk skate video—are all set in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Other references are more apparent; a ceramic poster of Bruce Lee’s 1973 film Enter the Dragon highlights one of the city’s most famous hometown heroes. House of Nanking (1988), 919 Kearny St. recreates the sign for a beloved local restaurant that has become a veritable landmark of the city.
As a counterpoint to these lighter nods to pop culture, other sculptures in the exhibition reference darker histories. Angel Island (Immigration Station, 1910–1940) is a hand-rendered map marking the point of entry—and interrogation, inspection, and detention—for an estimated 1,000,000 immigrants. A ceramic wire hanger titled We <3 Our Customers (Chinese Laundries, 1850) locates San Francisco as the origin of an industry born of prejudicial labor laws. The Little Engine That Could (Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869) presents the whimsical children’s book character as an allusion to the migrant labor used to build critical American infrastructure.
Shih’s broader artistic practice often explores objects that blur the line between foreign and domestic, emphasizing the layered identities of immigrants and their children. In Greetings from Gold Mountain, she uses a doilied plate of crab rangoons, a scorpion bowl complete with ceramic cocktail umbrella, and a clear bag of porcelain fortune cookies to challenge notions of supposed authenticity. While these foods were all concocted in the Bay Area—the first two having no basis in Asian cuisine at all—they have certainly become part of the lexicon of American Chinese restaurants. In this way, Shih reminds us that outside influence is an unavoidable, and even central, aspect of the diasporic experience. Confronted with the realities of colonialism, displacement, assimilation, and cultural interchange, the artist rejects the flattened identity politics that often dominate these conversations. Instead, Shih advocates for a more nuanced perspective, challenging the idea that such exacting discourse cannot be had in the public sphere.
Born in Philadelphia, Shih currently lives and works in New York City. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Portland, OR, Dallas, Boston, and Philadelphia. Shih has recently been nominated for multiple awards, including the United States Artists Fellowship, the UOVO Prize at the Brooklyn Museum, and a permanent public artwork with the City of New York. She has been awarded grants and residencies from the American Museum of Ceramic Arts, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Lighthouse Works, and Silver Art Projects. Shih’s work is included in numerous private and public collections, including the Syracuse University Art Museum and New-York Historical Society.
Notably, Shih’s engagement with social issues extends beyond her craft. Since 2017, Shih has used her art and accompanying social media platform to raise over $100,000 for disenfranchised and immigrant communities facing material instability and deportation.
Greetings from Gold Mountain, February 23 – March 25, 2023. On view at 10 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Images and preview are available upon request. For all inquiries, please contact the gallery by phone (415) 781-4629 or by email info@berggruen.com.
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Art Fairs
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Frieze Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California Feb 26 – Mar 1, 2026Berggruen Gallery is proud to announce our participation in Frieze Los Angeles. Please visit us at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California. More...View More -
Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida Dec 5 – 7, 20252025 will mark Berggruen Gallery’s twenty-third consecutive year participating in Art Basel Miami Beach, since the fair’s inception. Please visit us at the Miami Beach...View More -
The Armory Show
New York City, New York Sep 4 – 7, 2025Berggruen Gallery is proud to participate in The Armory Show 2025. Please visit us at Booth 400 at the Javits Center in New York. Tickets...View More -
FOG Design + Art
San Francisco, California Jan 22 – 26, 2025View More -
Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida Dec 4 – 9, 20242024 will mark Berggruen Gallery’s twenty-second consecutive year participating in Art Basel Miami Beach, since the fair’s inception.View More -
The Armory Show
New York City, New York Sep 5 – 8, 2024Berggruen Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in The Armory Show 2024. Please visit us at Booth 213 at the Javits Center in New...View More -
Dallas Art Fair
Dallas, Texas Apr 4 – 7, 2024View More -
FOG Design + Art
San Francisco, California Jan 18 – 21, 2024View More -
Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida Dec 7 – 10, 2023View More -
Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida Nov 29 – Dec 3, 2022View More
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News
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Fragments of the Chinese Diaspora Converge in Stephanie Shih’s Mosaic Sculptures
Colossal | By Grace Ebert September 15, 2025Known for trompe l’oeil ceramic sculptures of pantry staples and domestic life, Stephanie Shih has further entrenched her largely culinary-focused repertoire in material culture. In...Read more -
Val Britton & Stephanie H. Shih
2025 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Recipients July 9, 2025Congratulations to artists Val Britton & Stephanie H. Shih 2025 POLLOCK-KRASNER FOUNDATION GRANT RECIPIENTS For more than three decades, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation has supported working...Read more -
Stephanie H. Shih at Alexander Berggruen Gallery
Patron Magazine | By Nancy Cohen Israel April 1, 2024Dr. Pepper, 7-11, and Funyuns are Texas icons. For Stephanie H. Shih, they also offer inspiration for the work she is presenting with Alexander Berggruen...Read more -
The Reflective, Playful Art Of Stephanie H. Shih
Service 95 | By Marianna Cerini April 17, 2023Stephanie H. Shih credits the blossoming of her artistic career to a handful of dumplings and a bottle of Chinkiang vinegar. In 2018, it was...Read more -
Stephanie H. Shih’s ceramics imbue simple objects with meaning, beauty
SF Chronicle Datebook | By Letha Ch'ien March 9, 2023Artist Stephanie H. Shih’s work is seemingly everywhere these days, but her latest show, “Greetings From Gold Mountain” at the Berggruen Gallery, wants to talk...Read more -
Ceramic Artist Stephanie H. Shih Recreates Food Products in Clay to Explore Cultural Identity
Creative Boom | By Olivia Atkins January 11, 2023'Clay is the most direct route from what's in your head to what's in your hands,' said a friend of Taiwanese-American artist Stephanie H Shih...Read more
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