YiMiao Shih (Taiwan, b. 1985) is a London-based interdisciplinary artist. She holds a MA in Visual Communication from Royal College of Art and a BFA in Fine Art from National Taiwan Normal University. Her work brings a sharp wit and keen eye for contemporary cultural and social issues to her creative process. She works across drawing, embroidery, wood and metal.
She describes her work as contemporary ‘embroidery-drawing’: she works innovatively with a domestic sewing machine and hand-sewing to mimic hand-drawn movement with stitched marks. Her stitched images portray narratives composed with reality and fictional characters. The fictional characters explore the reality on her behalf as her imaginary friends. Her recent themes are about exploring a sense of belonging and comfort, as well as owning, accessing or affording a place for home. YiMiao’s work reflects on the subjects with a hint of lightheartedness as well as a keenness to enjoy one’s reality.
Her solo exhibition and six-month residency 'YiMiao Shih: Rabbrexit Means Rabbrexit', House of Illustration, London (2019), involved production of a series of new works in mixed media, drawing together YiMiao’s real-world observations of the nationalistic fervour, economic uncertainty and fragmentation of societal bonds brought about by Brexit. Recent artist residency and solo at 1B Gallery in 2024 led her to explore metal work as supporting language for the stitched images, following up with wood exploration for work shown in Collect 2025 and latest work currently on view until 10 August 2025 in both Wilton Way Gallery and Findlay Property in Hackney, London.
Group shows include: Somerset House, Collect Art Fair with Candida Stevens Gallery (2025); Paul Smith Albemarle Street Gallery (2024); Koppel X Gallery (2023); ING Discerning Eye Exhibition (2022); Mall Galleries, Sunday Times Watercolour Competition (2019); Poster Prize, London Transport Museum (2019); Seventeen Gallery (2019); 250th Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition (2018); CICA Museum, Korea (2018); Street Road Artists Space, USA (2017); Saatchi Gallery, London (2016).
YiMiao presented her recent work of metal and stitched image in Collect Art Fair 2025 at Somerset House, London and is represented by Candida Stevens Gallery.