Shani Shih is a DC-based multidisciplinary artist working at the intersections of public art, arts education, and community organizing. Her murals live in a variety of spaces—ranging from schools, gardens to convenience stores—and her studio works, which include pen & ink illustration and multimedia painting on found material, have been showcased in regional and national exhibitions. Whether in the studio or out in the world, she uses movement-filled compositions to explore lived experience, the visceral complexities of the mind-body connection, and the social systems that so powerfully shape human realities. Her public art practice draws heavily from her background in community and ongoing work as a tenant organizer, centering working class voice and power in landscapes commandeered by forces of gentrification and displacement.

In 2016, Shani co-founded the 411 Collective, a street art/graffiti collective working to uplift communities through murals and direct art action. In 2018, with the help of the 1882 Foundation, she founded the Chinatown Art Studio, a youth art space servicing Asian Pacific American youth through multimedia art instruction and creative empowerment programming.