Qualia Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the opening of two new exhibitions: Cathy Lu and Yulia Pinkusevich: Emergence and Stella Zhang: Tidal Traces. Both shows will be on view from March 7 through May 2, 2026.
We invite you to join us for the opening reception on Saturday, March 7, from 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM.
In honor of International Women’s Day, this ceremony marks a profound moment for women in the arts. These exhibitions navigate significant cultural and historical milestones, offering a space to engage with themes of transformation—cycles of death and rebirth, repair and renewal. We are committed to nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment for critical exchange, and we welcome our community to join us in thoughtful dialogue with the artists.
Cathy Lu and Yulia Pinkusevich: Emergence
Emergence brings together the sculptural practice of Cathy Lu and the elemental paintings of Yulia Pinkusevich that together explore the spiritual, cultural, and environmental dimensions of transformation and regeneration. Through organic ceramics and numinous paintings, the Bay Area artists employ inherited forms and ancient traditions as tools for reimagining the beyond. Fire, incense, mica, ash, and charcoal become materials of transformation, holding destruction and renewal in the same gesture.
Cathy Lu utilizes sculptural incense burners to draw upon Chinese and Taiwanese temple practices, clearing space to summon narratives excluded from historical annals. Her work reimagines the responsibility of the artist in creating with inherited mythologies and immigrant histories.
Yulia Pinkusevich explores transformation through "ritual flame portraits" that contemplate mortality and spiritual passage. Incorporating remnants of physical combustion—charcoal, ash, and mica—her canvases treat fire as an active presence. Her style is tensioned between diagrammatic marks and sweeping gestures, charging the works with symbolic fire.
Stella Zhang: Tidal Traces
In the solo exhibition Tidal Traces, Stella Zhang approaches the tide as an embodied condition, exploring fluid relations between waves, memory, and emotion. In this exhibition, Zhang draws inspiration from her experience living close to the ocean in San Francisco. Utilizing the ebb and flow of oceanic systems as a conceptual framework, Zhang reflects on the body’s negotiation with external forces. Rather than representing the ocean itself, Zhang uses the tide to examine how bodies register pressure over time, viewing the ocean’s rhythm as a symbol of constancy and repetition.
The exhibition features nine new mixed-media works on canvas, employing materials closely connected to the body—knitted fabric, thread, and paper. These soft, fragile materials are layered and distressed to reflect how the physical form absorbs pressure over time. Structured around three oceanic states—high tide, intertidal, and low tide—the work makes visible the invisible landscape of the self, finding balance through cycles of exhaustion and adaptation.
About the Artists
Cathy Lu
Cathy Lu (b. Miami, FL) received her BA and BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University and her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Ceramics at UC Berkeley. Lu was a 2022 SFMOMA SECA Award winner and a 2019 Asian Cultural Council/Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation Fellow. Her work has been exhibited widely at institutions including SFMOMA, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Chengdu Biennial. Her art is held in the permanent collections of the Asian Art Museum San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
Lu creates ceramic-based sculptures and installations that reference Chinese diasporic imagery, mythology, and experiences to interrogate fallacies about race and gender in American culture. Her practice draws attention to unacknowledged histories of immigration, hybridity, and assimilation. By utilizing clay—a medium that contains both past and futurity—she summons narratives formerly excluded from historical annals, reimagining the past to create a more equitable future
Yulia Pinkusevich
Yulia Pinkusevich (b. Kharkiv, Ukraine) holds an MFA from Stanford University and a BFA from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts. A 2024 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow at the National Air and Space Museum, she has also received fellowships from the Headlands Center for the Arts and the Cite des Arts International Paris. Currently an Associate Professor of Studio Art at Northeastern University, Pinkusevich has exhibited internationally in Paris, London, and Buenos Aires. Her work is held in the public collections of the de Young Museum, Stanford University, the Kiev History Museum, and the permanent collections of Google and Meta.
Pinkusevich’s work explores transformation by imbuing her paintings with symbolic fire as a philosophical tool for contemplating mortality and energetic connections. Drawing from Siberian animism and shamanic cosmologies, she incorporates natural pigments and remnants of physical combustion—charcoal, ash, and mica—into her canvases. Her style is tensioned between fine, diagrammatic marks and sweeping, atmospheric gestures, treating fire as a presence that navigates the landscape between the unconscious and conscious realms.
Stella Zhang
Stella Zhang (b. Beijing, China) received her BFA from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1989 and her MFA from Tokyo Art University in 1996. Based in the United States since 2003, her work has been exhibited extensively in Chinese, Japanese, and American galleries and museums, including a solo exhibition at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2016. Zhang has published six monographs and has received numerous awards, with features in The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. A former Artist-in-Residence and guest lecturer at Stanford University, she is currently completing her residency at Lucas Artists Programs at Montalvo Arts Center.
Zhang’s practice serves as a medium for interpreting diverse emotions and spiritual thoughts to reveal the "true face of human nature." By choosing raw and ordinary materials—such as fabric, thread, and paper—she creates an effect of flatness and delicacy that enables personal reflection bordering on meditation. Her work extemporaneously disregards rules and boundaries in an attempt to channel intimate needs of expression, exploring how bodies, particularly women’s, are worn down, managed, and disciplined within social structures.
Opening on International Women’s Day, we recognize and honor the essential life force and creative contributions women provide to our collective landscape.
Through the themes of regenerative forces and material ritual, these exhibitions serve as a site to honor the internal narratives and presence of the artists. We invite you to join us in this moment of communal reflection, supporting a dialogue that centers the profound strength and milestones of women shaping the contemporary landscape.
Location
229 Hamilton Ave
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Gallery Contact
Dacia Xu
650-656-9132
dacia@qualiagallery.com
Exhibition Dates
March 7 – May 2, 2026
Opening Reception: Saturday, March 7 | 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
