Text by ISHAAN BATRA and SEBASTIAN BONNARD
Qualia Contempor GALLERY EXHIBITIONS SHOWCASE LOCAL ART
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S ONLOOKERS STROLL DOWN UNIVERSITY Avenue in downtown Palo Alto, Qualia Contemporary Art Gallery will certainly catch their eye. The medley of the paintings’ colors juxtaposed with the sleek brightwhite gallery decor invites passersby to take a peek inside. Within the gallery, guests find themselves in a spacious room lined with paintings from Oakland artists Cate White’s “Here to Returnity” and Sean Howe’s “Inhabitants.” The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly scrambled our way of living, but local art still prevails. Owned and directed by Dacia Xu, the Qualia Contemporary Art Gallery has successfully launched two exhibitions after opening during the pandemic. Qualia Contemporary Art is now presenting two solo exhibitions by artists Stella Zhang and Yulia Pinkusevich from Feb. 11 to April 2.
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work created from 2017-2020 that capture[s] the beautiful, overwhelming complexities and relationships that exist within nature. It plays with both hope and anxiety regarding the natural world.” Even though both artists’ work explore separate mediums, Xu recognizes that they share a common theme. “While Howe and White are distinctively different artists with their own unique styles, the two exhibitions are actually in dialogue with and complement each other,” Xu said. “They share a strong sense of freedom, fluidity and inventiveness in exploring new possibilities for our world.” Howe and White’s collection are the gallery’s second exhibition since its establishment on University Avenue in 2020.
Cate White Cate White, an Oakland resident, is one Dacia Xu of the artists currently featured at the gallery. Dacia Xu, co-owner and director of White’s art explores a plethora of philosophical, Qualia, oversees all of the daily operations cultural and social perspectives — each lucidly involving the promotion and organization illustrated in materials ranging from acrylic to of the gallery. Xu manages lighting, sound or spray paint to latex. video, as needed, and remains at the gallery to White “takes her own personal history and answer questions from its many visitors. experiences, as well as those of her friends, and Xu meets visitors ranging in age from 14 places them within the art historical canon,” months to 80 years and finds her job rewarding according to Qualia’s website. and heartening because of the connections she The subjects of White’s work share a clarity — DACIA XU, gallery owner makes with those from all walks of life. that makes the audience feel a sense of intimacy “[A] fourteen-month-old boy sat in [a] with each painting. For her inspiration, White stroller and got very excited when he saw [the] paintings,” Xu draws on the figures and events around her. said. “Many people would come to tell me how happy they are to “I paint myself, people I’m close to, and archetypal, symbolic discover this gallery and how much they enjoy the exhibition … figures,” White said. “I haven’t painted much from my past life or and share their opinions about specific artworks.” childhood, but I plan to very soon.” “Here to Returnity” and “Inhabitants” is Xu’s second White worked as a creative writer until, at the age of 30, she exhibition at Qualia, showcasing Cate White and Sean Howe. realized that she preferred working with shades of paint instead of “Cate White’s work explores contemporary societal issues. the rhetoric of language. ‘Here to Returnity,’ is a series of mixed media on canvas pieces “The visual world came alive in a way that inspired me to want that set her personal experiences with the structural inequalities to be creative in that way,” White said. “I wanted to have a voice in [her] daily life,” Xu said. “‘Inhabitants’ is a surreal body of in the culture, and then with the painting that came, I kind of
They share a strong sense of freedom, fluidity and intentiveness in exploring new possibilities for our world.”
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