Founded by conceptual artist, curator and collector Shaun Kardinal, the meta-eponymous museum celebrates the personal collection, building systems of support for other artists through purchases, awards and residencies. Through experiential installations like Living Room, SKAM’s first physical outing, the artist collaborates with his collection. Since 2005, that body of work has grown from a humble set of prints and paintings to a dedicated compilation of a generation, a time capsule of the artist’s life in the art world.

Born and raised in suburban California, Kardinal moved to Seattle right out of high school. He began working in the arts a few years after, running a not-for-profit gallery in the frame shop he also managed. There, he met local art stars, gallerists, and the collectors who frequented their shows, instilling a sense of value in the acquisition. In his roles as a web developer and graphic designer since, he has worked with with dozens of artists, galleries, and arts orgs, including a stint at Frye Art Museum, where the first seeds of SKAM were sown.

He has received grants from 4Culture and Artist Trust, has served as a member of SOIL artist-run gallery, was an organizational member of Crawl Space Gallery, and co-founded Some Space Gallery. His collaborative exhibition productions Turn and Forward engaged over 70 artists in time-based cycles of process and reinvention. His studio work has exhibited from Seattle to New York to London and in between, and is represented in Seattle by J. Rinehart Gallery. He is currently living and working in Philadelphia.