This is my first ever glassdoor review, and I feel that my experience at Shin Gallery warranted it. I went into this internship knowing nothing about galleries, which perhaps caused me to overlook a few red flags. For reference, I was working concurrently at a second gallery in the city, which allows me to compare these two experiences and understand what is standard for the industry.
Firstly, at the time of my internship, Shin did not employ any full- or part-time employees. It is solely him and the few unpaid interns he hires each season. As a result, the gallery is largely disorganized, and numerous responsibilities (which I’d argue should not be given entirely to interns) fall to us. This includes curating entire exhibitions—while a great opportunity in theory, the lack of organization makes this very difficult, and is generally just not something a professional gallery would allow—and washing the exterior windows of the gallery. This lack of organization extends to shows, where many are curated last minute. He also does not hire art handlers, couriers, painters, or photographers, leaving valuable artwork in the hands of often inexperienced interns. The result of this is that while knowing he is hiring interns, he expects professional quality work while offering no training. For example, expecting installation images to be professional quality without professional lighting, having interns spackle and paint over holes in the walls, and carry large artworks across the city in harsh weather conditions. This all leaves much opportunity for artwork to be damaged, and I’m frankly shocked that this has not happened yet. And again, I’ll emphasize, every other gallery I’ve worked at or am familiar with hires individual contractors to do all of these jobs.
Secondly, while interns are unpaid—not uncommon in the industry, unfortunately—this internship veers into illegal territory according to the NY State Department of Labor. To mention just two violations, due to a lack of staff (violation one, interns displacing regular employees), interns do tasks related to Shin’s specific operation, and are not solely building on a classroom experience as a legal unpaid internship would (violation two). Each intern is given a 45-minute lunch break, which I appreciate, however, there is no drinking water in the gallery. A small restroom is available in the basement, however this room is often filled with various in-process artworks by the visiting artists. In order to save money, Shin often does not turn on heating or air conditioning, leaving interns to work in 95+ degree weather. Another intern I worked with recalled being told to turn the heat and AC on only when certain people visited the gallery, and to turn it off as soon as they left. Along these same cost-saving measures, interns are expected to use their personal Google drive and email, and are assumed to have access to whatever software they may need (as an example, Adobe, which will run you $70/month). Considering the money he is saving having no paid employees, this is absurd. And again, I’ll emphasize, this is not the norm at other galleries.
Thirdly, Shin himself. I’ll begin by saying that he is a nice person, overall. However, he does not know how to communicate what he wants, therefore leading to a lot of frustration when trying to present him with work. This will include iterations where I’ve done what he’s asked, verbatim, only for him to say he dislikes it, and thinks I could do better. His communication is overall very unprofessional—while I understand and appreciate constructive criticism, Shin takes this further, reacting harshly to any work he believes is not up to par (and again, note that he does not provide any training for this professional expectation). He will neglect personal suggestions in favor of his own vision, then get upset when the final project is bad.
On the thought of lack of professionalism, he often asks interns to work in his apartment upstairs, either solely with him or in a small group. Considering that the large majority of these interns are young women, this is particularly concerning. He does not seem to understand professional boundaries, and other interns have mentioned instances that are frankly bewildering in how inappropriate they are. His artistic interests lie in ‘provocative art’—i.e., erotic—which makes this all the more disturbing.
His reputation in the art community is overall negative—other galleries I’ve worked with note his name adversely. He very much lives in his own shadow as the youngest gallery owner in the city, seemingly trying to remain important as he blends into the gallery scene. Though the opportunities he offers sound good, they are truly not what they seem.