Collision

Qualia Contemporary Art is pleased to announce Collision, a solo exhibition of mixed media works by Oakland-based artist Gregory Rick. Recently honored as the winner of SFMoMA’s 2022 SECA Award and as a winner of the San Francisco Bay Area Artadia Award for 2022, Rick employs techniques from printmaking, paper making, painting, and drawing, to construct his genre of “History Painting”, focusing on “the obscure, the forgotten”, and “common knowledge”, alike. Rick found reading as an escape from a tumultuous childhood, and discovered drawing as a means of reclaiming agency. The study of history, in particular, has been vital to Rick’s development as an artist and his well-being as a veteran of the War in Iraq, providing ample sources for his illustrated narratives that weave personal history in among the many threads of political, social, and global history. Rick’s rhetorical question of “whose history is it?” echoes throughout his work, complicating and enriching each historical narrative. In a moment of profound uncertainty, unrest, and cultural anxiety, Collision shows how such widely shared sentiments of disillusionment can be artistic fodder for catalyzing change, connection, and inclusion.