Jay Shinn

Jay Shinn (b. 1957) has distinguished himself by exploring minimal geometric abstraction and spatial illusion through color, line, and light projection. The limits he sets on his practice—rules that individual works and bodies of work must follow—open up a vast field of visual expression and possibilities, all in pursuit of the soul and spirit of his art.

Jay Shinn produced a body of woodcuts at Manneken Press in 2009. More recently, Shinn has worked on several series of lithographs, which grew out of his work in neon sculpture, at Keystone Editions in Berlin.

Jay Shinn’s woodcut prints use precise line and geometric form to create optical situations that seem to shift and bend space, prompting viewers to question where the “real” object ends and the illusion begins. As Shinn notes, by working with light, shadow, line, and volume, the compositions generate implied depth and dimensionality that destabilize a straightforward reading of the picture plane.

In this series produced at Manneken Press, several layers of white ink are printed on richly colored handmade papers, which are then tiled together and mounted to a heavier white sheet, forming small, carefully constructed editions. The project, realized during Shinn’s 2009 visit to Manneken Press, employs woodblocks cut with a CNC router, bringing digital precision to a centuries-old relief process and resulting in a hybrid language only possible with twenty-first-century tools.

These prints stand as elegant examples of the intersection between digital and traditional printmaking: computer-routed blocks generate crisp, repeating linear structures, while the tactility of handmade paper and subtle embossment of the woodcut maintain a strong material presence. The interplay of luminous white geometry against colored grounds heightens the perceptual “push-pull” in the images, aligning Shinn’s work with broader histories of Op art and constructivist abstraction while remaining unmistakably rooted in contemporary technologies.

Contemporary OP Artist Jay Shinn received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and is an alumnus of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Shinn has been awarded several prestigious artist residencies, including Yaddo and Art Omi both in New York; the Takt Residency in Berlin, Germany; and the Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas. Recent exhibitions include Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas; Louise Alexander Gallery, Porto Cervo, Italy; Galerie Jordan Seydoux, Berlin, Germany; Barbara Davis Gallery, Houston; Theodore Art, NYC; Leila Heller Gallery, NYC; Knoerle & Baettig, Winterthur, Switzerland; and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. His work is in numerous public and private collections including Houston Intercontinental Airport, DFW Airport, Hobby Airport in Houston, Tom Ford in New York, W Hotels, the US Department of State; and Microsoft Corporation in Washington. The artist lives and works in Dallas, TX.