Press Release

Qualia Contemporary Art is proud to present the inaugural exhibition Catastrophic Beauty: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene. Xiaoze Xie, the Paul L. & Phyllis Wattis Professor of Art at Stanford University, has guest curated this exhibition featuring seven exceptional artists — Michael Arcega (b.1973), Robyn O’Neil (b.1977), QIU Anxiong (b.1972), John Sabraw (b.1968), SHANG Yang (b.1942), Jean Shin (b.1971), and Yi Xin Tong (b.1988).

Catastrophic Beauty: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene addresses the impact of human dominance over the environment and explores its psychological, aesthetic, and philosophical implications. “We live in an era identified as the Anthropocene with proliferation of new technologies and rapid ecological changes: climate warming, rising sea levels, extinction of biological species, surging population and explosive urbanization,” says Xiaoze Xie. “Artists in this exhibition confront this pressing reality with acute perception, imagination, resistance, and hope.”

“We aim to generate reflections and dialogues on environmental concerns through this inaugural exhibition. High tech development has such a profound impact on the world environment that raising the environmental consciousness of the Silicon  Valley community is essential and critical,” says Dacia Xu, Director of Qualia Contemporary Art and co-founder of this brand new gallery. With a Ph. D in materials science and seven years of experience in the high-tech industry, Xu fell in love with contemporary art since she saw the first exhibition of Robert Rauschenberg in Beijing in 1985. Qualia Contemporary Art is located on University Avenue of downtown Palo Alto next to the iconic Apple store, at the heart of Silicon Valley, a global center of technological innovation.  “Silicon  Valley is a synonym for innovative minds and the spirit of entrepreneurship. I hope our gallery will contribute to the cultural life of this highly intelligent community. ” says Xu.

SHANG Yang’s work concerns the environment and humans’ future, “Cataract” and “Decayed Book” series exemplify his wide range of experimentation with non-traditional materials.  John Sabraw is an artist and an environmental activist who collaborates with scientists and engineers on many projects focusing on sustainability, particularly on water contamination caused by acid mine drainage. His paintings incorporate pigments that are extracted in the process of restoring polluted streams in southeastern Ohio. Shanghai-based QIU Anxiong’s work draws inspiration from explosive urbanization at a breathtaking pace and scale, and the enormous transformationChinais going through. His animated trilogy New Classic of the Mountains and Seas (2006) mixes contemporary life with imaginary creatures to create a dreamlike and nightmarish world. Robyn O’Neil’s work conveys the anxiety of climate change, the terror of violence and destruction, and ultimately, an existential emptiness. Her graphite drawings and animation We, the Masses (2011) depict small everyman figures as isolated, self-absorbed, helpless, and purposeless in vast, bleak landscapes. Korean-born American Jean Shin is known for her sculptures and installations made through elaborate processes using accumulated recycled materials. Her work Intervals (2013) alludes to the ephemeral nature of music and culture at large; and another installation piece Projections #1-5 (2018) calls into question our blind faith in technological advancement and the very idea of progress. In Chinese-born American artist Yi Xin Tong’s tapestries, he intricately interweaves photographs of the quasi-natural areas in the peripheries of New York City and freely combines them digitally with images of science, history, and archaeology mined from the internet. San Francisco-based artist Michael Arcega  creates mixed-media installations that inventively combine sculptures and drawings that he makes with a wide range of found materials, objects, and cultural artifacts. He adopts the methodologies of anthropological studies to humorously speak about colonialism, consumerism and our obsession with innovation.

As a group, these seven artists represent the sincere voice and poetic articulation of socio-political critique from worldwide perspectives. Their showcase at Qualia Contemporary Art suggests that we reconsider our understanding of the present and visions of the future in the age of the Anthropocene.

Curator’s Essay

Here I am, standing in the middle of a brand-new white box gallery, surrounded by works just taken out of crates from San Francisco, Texas, Ohio, New York and Shanghai. I have yet to convince myself that this new gallery of contemporary art has come into being during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, and that it sits literally one door away from the technological heaven of the Apple Store in downtown Palo Alto.

As I get over the astonishing location and context, I am confronted with works silently leaning against the walls, some familiar and others I am seeing in person for the first time. I am so struck by the jarring contrast between the muted, somber canvases of Shang Yang and the glossy, brightly colored paintings by John Sabraw, that I start to question the cohesiveness of the show and my curatorial premises. As I spend more time looking at and contemplating these distinctively different works from such a diverse group of artists, shared themes, conceptual links, formal and aesthetic affinities become evident, and a clear pattern with multiple points of connection starts to emerge.  

“Catastrophic Beauty: Art in the Age of the Anthropocene,” the inaugural exhibition for Qualia Contemporary Art brings together an extraordinary group of seven artists whose work addresses the impact of human dominance over the environment and explores its psychological, aesthetic, and philosophical implications. 

Shang Yang (b. 1942) is considered a pioneer of ecological art among Chinese artists of his generation. A highly accomplished painter, Shang Yang moved away from his early figurative style towards a more experimental and conceptual approach in the early 1990s, and his work has been concerned with the environment ever since. According to the artist: “For years I have been using ‘grand landscapes’ to express my concern about the relationship between humans and our environment and about our future survival as a species… the different expressive styles of the artists of the middle ages [agree] on this single subject—nature at one with humans. Now they no longer exist and have been replaced by a fake nature.” (Shang Yang’s Views on Art).[1] Included in the exhibition, paintings from his recent “Cataract” and “Decayed Book” series exemplify Shang’s wide range of experimentation with non-traditional materials: various chemical substances such as ethylene, as well as plastics, metals and mixed debris. “Cataract No. 3” (2017) calls to mind the rugged and cracked surfaces of a destroyed terrain, as well as ghostly geographic mapping. In Shang’s “Decayed Book – Politics,” “Decayed Book – History” and “Decayed Book – Literature,” (three works from 2018) the notion of decay is expanded to suggest broader cultural meanings. These “books” are like deserted battlefields or ruins — fragmented, tilted, charred, defaced, emptied-out and erased – haunted by memories of trauma.

In contrast to the monochromes in Shang’s work, paintings by John Sabraw (b. 1968) are full of intense and exuberant colors. These deceptively beautiful paintings on aluminum panels are in fact made with a variety of pigments including ones that the artist created from chemicals such as iron oxide extracted in the process of restoring polluted streams in southeastern Ohio. A modern alchemist of a kind, John Sabraw is an environmentalist who collaborates with scientists and engineers on many projects focusing on sustainability. Through making paint and paintings, the kinds of toxicity seen in Shang’s work are transformed by Sabraw into patterns that look like crystal lakes, branching rivers and microscopic views of living organisms, all suggesting rejuvenation and vitality.

In the projection room, animations by Qiu Anxiong (b. 1972) and Robyn O’Neil (b. 1977) feature drastically different narratives and scenes that are equally dense, dark and apocalyptic. Shanghai-based Qiu Anxiong has witnessed and drawn inspiration from the explosive urbanization at a breathtaking pace and scale, and the enormous transformationChinais going through. Based on Classic of Mountains and Seas, or Shan Hai Jing, a Chinese classic text filled with mythic geography and beasts, Qiu’s animated trilogy New Classic (2006) mixes contemporary life with imaginary creatures to create dreamlike scenes and absurd narratives, a nightmarish world troubled by pollution, genetic engineering, surveillance and control. In an interview the artist said, “I borrowed the perspective of ancient people to observe our modern phenomena.”[2] Also included in the exhibition are a group of exquisite ink and color paintings by Qiu. Although at first glance they appear to follow traditional Chinese themes and style, close observation reveals unsettling details: dark water in a seemingly romantic landscape, a strange looking man-made creature flying among flowers.

Robyn O’Neil’s graphite drawings and animation We, the Masses (2011) convey a similar absurdity and psychological tension. In the hands of the artist, graphite is not just a simple tool to capture and construct images; it becomes an instrument fine-tuned with precision and a unique stylization to create mood and drama. In O’Neil’s Hieronymus Bosch-esque world, the small everyman figures are isolated, self-absorbed, helpless and purposeless in vast, bleak landscapes. Thick clouds layer the sky, like a roughened sea surface viewed from below. Rising dark waves engulf escaping figures. Stories of violence, rescue and survival unfold but lead to nowhere. In most poetic ways, O’Neil’s work conveys the anxiety of climate change, the terror of violence and destruction, and ultimately, an existential emptiness.

The scene of rising waves in O’Neil’s animation We, the Masses reminds me of Jean Shin’s Sound Wave (2007), a sculpture in the form of a cascading wave made from numerous black vinyl records. The wave in Shin’s piece is no longer the revenge of nature but the crushing power of technology and the fleeting trends of popular culture. Korean-born American artist Jean Shin (b. 1971) is known for her sculptures and installations made through elaborate processes using accumulated recycled materials. Included in the exhibition is Intervals (2013), a series of Minimalist collages using audio tapes, alluding to the ephemeral nature of music and culture at large. Here sound is conceptualized, only imagined through the visual rhythm. Projections #1-5 (2018) is an installation of hanging “chandeliers” made from hundreds of 35mm art history slides lit from inside. Shin’s use of materials cast-off from the relentless evolution of technology draws our attention to what we leave behind, and calls into question our blind faith in technological advancement and the very idea of progress.

Scientific diagrams and illustrations, along with detritus, commodities and patterns of plants and living creatures populate the densely montaged tapestries by Chinese-born American artist Yi Xin Tong (b. 1988). Inspired by his recent endeavors as an amateur fisherman, Tong takes numerous photographs of the quasi-natural areas in the peripheries of New York City and freely combines them digitally with images of science, history and archaeology mined from the internet. In Tong’s tapestries, all of these different elements are woven together, overlapping and obscuring each other, creating a disorienting world in which the natural, the cultural, and the technological are intricately intertwined.

San Francisco-based artist Michael Arcega (b. 1973) also takes a playful approach that is radically different from the tragic sensibility and weightiness in the works of some other artists in the exhibition. Conceptually driven, Arcega creates mixed-media installations that inventively combine sculptures and drawings that he makes with a wide range of found materials, objects and cultural artifacts. Presented in the exhibition are four major works that are part of his investigation into the Nacirema people (a fictive tribe whose name comes from reversing the word “American”). As the artist stated: “I adopt methodologies used in the anthropological study of world cultures that often emphasize ‘otherness,’ but turning the tables, positioning North America as ‘the other’ whose symbols and rituals must be studied and understood.”[3] In Nacireman Field: A Topography of Inventions (2016), ceramic objects based on actual patents and inventions are arranged to form a map of thoughts. The fetish display speaks humorously about our obsession with innovation and progress. This is the reverse archaeology of our present and our ideas about the future.

We live in an era identified as the Anthropocene with proliferation of new technologies and rapid ecological changes: climate warming, rising sea levels, extinctions of biological species, surging population and explosive urbanization. Artists in this exhibition confront this pressing reality with acute perception, imagination, resistance and hope. One wonders: is there any beauty, or enchantment to be found in these works dealing with such weighty subjects, often with a seemingly bleak outlook? Is aesthetics still important, or even relevant in a world full of irony? Where is the “art”? For me, “art” is not only found in the tiny images of canonical works in art history, softly glowing in the slides of Jean Shin’s installation; it is in the engagement of the legacies of painting (be it literati landscape, abstraction or outsider art) in the works of Shang Yang, Qiu Anxiong, John Sabraw and Robyn O’Neil; in the multiple points of cultural reference in the work of Mike Arcega and Yi Xin Tong; it is in the poetic articulation of socio-political critique. If there is beauty to find, it is of entirely different kinds characterized by ambiguity, absurdity, fragmentation, mutation, complexity, paradox and a refusal to follow the cultural norm and existing aesthetic paradigms.

Robyn O’Neil, still from We, the Masses (2011)

1.  http://www.chambersfineart.com/artists/shang-yang.

2.  Qiu Anxiong Discusses His Work in Ink Art: Past as Present in Contemporary China, posted on the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on April 25th, 2014.

3.  https://arcega.us/contact.html.