The Queens Museum, in partnership with Queens Center, presents a newly commissioned vinyl artwork by Pauline Shaw located in the mall’s Center Court. Shaw employs a variety of craft-based techniques, such as weaving and felting, to create sculptures, textiles, and installations that examine her own personal history against the backdrop of centuries-old artistic traditions passed down through generations. 

For her commission in the Center Court, Shaw pulled imagery from paper cutouts found in Chinese folk art as well as ancient Chinese wall tapestries currently in museum collections across the United States. As these valuable textiles changed hands from individuals to museums, their meaning has also shifted over time, encompassing more personal ideas related to life, death, and beauty, as well as more institutional concerns of artistic value and historical preservation. Shaw combines extracted landscapes of birds and flowers with abstracted images of cells and tissues found in the human body, connecting the intricacy and fragility of these hand-crafted works to the unique complexities that make up living organisms.

The Center Court, located on Queens Center’s second floor, is a spacious resting point where visitors can relax with a cup of coffee, take in the mall’s multitude of shopping opportunities, or enjoy the mall’s lively public programming. Shaw’s commission is installed across the 138 foot rectangular atrium, and was unveiled to the public during Queens Center’s Lunar New Year celebrations on Saturday, January 21, 2023.

About the Artist

Pauline Shaw (b. 1988, Kirkland, Washington) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice examines the intersections between personal experience and broader ethnic and spiritual histories. Previous exhibitions include: Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco, California (2022); Downs & Ross, New York, New York (2022); Someday Gallery, New York, New York (2022); The Shed, New York, New York (2021); Spurs, Beijing, China (2021); Half Gallery, New York, New York (2020); Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, China (2019); Almine Rech, Paris, France (2019); Gagosian, New York, New York (2019); in lieu, Los Angeles, California (2019); and The Jewish Museum, New York, New York (2018). She has upcoming exhibitions at Chapter, New York, New York and Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco, California, both in 2023. Shaw has been an artist in residence at ISCP, New York, New York (2020), and France Los Angeles Residency Exchange Program (2014). She completed her MFA at Columbia University in 2019 and received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2011.

About Queens Center

Queens Center Mall is an urban shopping center in Elmhurst, Queens, located on Queens Boulevard between 57th Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard. Owned and managed by Macerich, Queens Center Mall is the largest mall for the borough and offers shoppers a variety of quality retailers, including Apple, Macy’s, Sephora, and more. The indoor shopping destination also includes an expansive food court and popular dining options like The Cheesecake Factory, Applebee’s, Shake Shack, and Chick-fil-A. In 2023, Queens Center Mall will welcome new retailers, including ZARA and Primark.