JAESEOB SHIN

Cluster Contemporary Jewellery
”AMALGAM”

Jaeseob Shin is a contemporary jewelry artist and metalcraft designer based in Seoul, South Korea. He holds both a BFA and an MFA in Metal Craft and Design from Seoul National University of Science and Technology, where he is currently pursuing a PhD. His practice explores the shifting boundaries between wearable jewelry, sculpture, and the everyday object.

In his work, gemstones often represent human emotions, while metal embodies the situations, structures, and external forces that shape them. Through distortion, deconstruction, reverse stone setting, oxidation, and the recombination of familiar forms, Shin transforms conventional jewelry into objects that question function, value, beauty, and wearability. The ring is a recurring format in his practice, serving not only as an ornament but also as a compact sculptural space for narrative and experimentation.

His works have been presented through international exhibitions, competitions, and jewelry platforms, including NYC Jewelry Week, Venice Design Week, and the Aqua Ambra Aquila Competition. Shin continues to develop contemporary jewelry as an object that extends beyond the body and invites reflection, interpretation, and dialogue.

Jaeseob Shin’s practice begins with the relationship between emotion and circumstance. In his work, gemstones represent human emotions, while metal embodies the situations, structures, and external forces that surround and shape them. By placing these materials in unexpected relationships, he explores how meaning can shift when familiar objects lose their conventional function or context.

Shin often uses the ring as a compact sculptural space rather than simply as wearable decoration. Through distortion, deconstruction, division and recombination, reverse stone setting, oxidation, and unconventional construction, he transforms recognizable jewellery forms into questioning objects. Elements traditionally associated with beauty, value, and ornament may be hidden, inverted, damaged, or displaced, allowing new narratives and tensions to emerge.

His process often begins with form rather than a fixed story. Meaning develops gradually through making, material reactions, and intuitive decisions. The completed work does not offer a single interpretation but invites the viewer to consider the unstable boundaries between beauty and discomfort, function and non-function, desire and absence. For Shin, jewellery extends beyond the body, becoming an object for reflection, interpretation, and dialogue.