OUR BODIES THROUGH OUR EYES
Annie Duncan, Gina M. Contreras, HUANG Hairong, Hung Liu, Ren Light Pan, Stella Zhang, WANG You
Front and Back
2005-10 Oil on canvas
Hung Liu
October 17, 2024 (Palo Alto, CA) - Qualia Contemporary Art is pleased to announce Our Bodies Through Our Eyes, a group exhibition curated by Gallery Co-Founder and Director Dacia Xu. Featured artists include Gina M. Contreras, Annie Duncan, HUANG Hairong, Hung Liu, Ren Light Pan, WANG You, and Stella Zhang. Our Bodies Through Our Eyes brings together the work of these seven women artists, many from the Bay Area, to exemplify the ways in which the female body and its representation can be used as a vehicle of resistance, reclamation, and healing. The exhibition will be open to the public from November 9, 2024, to January 4, 2025, with an opening celebration hosted on Sunday, November 9th, from 4:30-6:30 PM PST with many of the artists in attendance. For more information, please visit www.qualiagallery.com.
Our Bodies Through Our Eyes presents the unique perspectives of multiple generations of makers, all of whom work in distinct styles and from different approaches. The exhibition’s curation focuses on representations of the female body to explore a host of expressions, from personal narratives, to psychology and symbolism, to social and cultural contexts in the present and across history. In dialogue with each other, the selected works aim to question conventions and biases around women and to recontextualize their roles and identities through art.
“I was inspired to curate a group show featuring women artists whose work uses portraiture as a tool for deconstructing the social ideals of femininity, beauty, and gender itself.”
– Dacia Xu
CATALOG INDEX
Annie Duncan
Exquisite Corpse|2022, 48 x 79 in (121.92 x 200.66 cm), Acrylic on Canvas
Dinner Party II|2022, 14 x 17 in (35.56 x 43.18 cm), Oil on Canvas
Dinner Party IV|2022, 14 x 17 in (35.56 x 43.18 cm), Oil on Canvas
Origin Story|2022, 46 x 58 in (116.84 x 147.32 cm), Acrylic on Canvas
You’re Welcome|2022, 148 x 64 x 6 in (375.92 x 162.56 x 15.24 cm), Ceramic sculpture and rope
Gina M. Contreras
Continuing Comfort|2023, 36 x 60 in (91.44 x 152.4 cm), Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
Keep Me For My Softness|2023, 48 x 36 in (121.92 x 91.44 cm), Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
Shifting Pleasures|2023, 36 x 36 in (91.44 x 91.44 cm), Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
We Shall Always Be Alone|2023, 48 x 36 in (121.92 x 91.44 cm), Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
HUANG Hairong
Image Consumption No. 36|2009, 62.99 x 62.99 in (160 x 160 cm), Oil on Canvas
Image Consumption No. 40|2009, 70.87 x 59.06 in (180 x 150 cm), Oil on Canvas
Camouflage|2012, 23.62 x 23.62 in (60 x 60 cm), Oil on Canvas
Mayfly No. 5|2013, 42.13 x 78.74 in (107 x 200 cm), Oil on Canvas
Vow|2014, 23.62 x 23.62 in (60 x 60 cm), Oil on Canvas
Born in Instruction No. 1|2024, 31.50 x 23.62 in (80 x 60 cm), Oil on Canvas
Born in Instruction No. 2|2024, 31.50 x 23.62 in (80 x 60 cm), Oil on Canvas
Hung Liu
Front and Back|2005-10, 64 x 48 in (162.56 x 121.92 cm), Oil on Canvas
White Butterflies|2011, 66 x 56 in (167.64 x 142.24 cm), Oil on Linen
To Create Mankind’s Happiness|2013, 20.5 x 20.5 in (52.07 x 52.07 cm), Mixed media/resin with paint
Light Source|2016, 20.5 x 41 in (52.07 x 104.14 cm), Mixed media/resin with paint
CATALOG INDEX COUN’T
Ren Light Pan
Sleep|2015, 68 x 40 in (172.72 x 101.6 cm), Ink, Water on Canvas
Glowing on Sunday Morning, Krystal Kleen Coin Laundry, Beverly Blvd & N Normandie Ave|2017, 24 x 18 in (60.96 x 45.72 cm), Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
I.D, PAN, KWON-YUAN, M, R.I.P.|2017, 32 x 24 in (81 x 61 cm), Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
Selfie W Titties|2017, 32 x 24 in (81.28 x 60.96 cm), Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
Single-user bathroom, Trader Joe's, Wilshire Blvd & 23rd St|2017, 24 x 18 in (60.96 x 45.72 cm), Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
Stella Zhang
Being Trapped|2020, 19 x 11 x 14 in (48.26 x 27.94 x 35.56 cm), Mixed Media
Different Life|2020, 5 x 22 x 7 in (12.7 x 55.88 x 17.78 cm), Mixed Media
Innocent Victim|2020, 10 x 15 x 12 in (25.4 x 38.1 x 30.48 cm), Mixed Media
Invisible|2020, 18 x 13 x 5 in (45.72 x 33.02 x 12.7 cm), Mixed Media
Invisible Landscape|2020, 16 x 14 x 2 in (40.64 x 35.56 x 5.08 cm), Mixed Media
Irreparable Incomplete|2020, 12 x 9 x 3 in (30.48 x 22.86 x 7.62 cm), Mixed Media Monologue|2020, 40 x 30 x 26 in (101.6 x 76.2 x 66.04 cm), Mixed Media
Noah’s Ark|2020, 10 x 33 x 14 in (25.4 x 83.82 x 35.56 cm), Mixed Media
Observance|2020, 17 x 24 x 4 in (43.18 x 60.96 x 10.16 cm), Mixed Media
Open a Window|2020, 36 x 22 x 2 in (91.44 x 55.88 x 5.08 cm), Mixed Media
Token-1|2020, 26 x 15 x 7 in (66.04 x 38.1 x 17.78 cm), Mixed Media
Trapped|2020, 6 x 16 x 9 in (15.24 x 40.64 x 22.86 cm), Mixed Media
Unreadable Book|2020, 9 x 23 x 4 in (22.86 x 58.42 x 10.16 cm), Mixed Media
Second Skin-2|2021, 59 x 36 x 4 in (149.86 x 91.44 x 10.16 cm), Mixed Media
Falling Waltz|2023, 11 x 11 x 11 in (27.94 x 27.94 x 27.94 cm), Mixed Media
Wang You
I Hate Love|2023, 78.74 x 70.87 in (200 x 180 cm), Acrylic on Canvas
Party in South Park|2023, 85.04 x 70.87 in (216 x 180 cm), Acrylic on Canvas
Annie Duncan’s work combines vibrant, large-scale still lifes in both acrylic painting and ceramic sculpture, capturing everyday objects with striking intensity and depth. Drawing directly from life, Duncan's compositions reflect an intimate perspective on the cluttered spaces of daily life—from crammed candles on a dining table to the scattered items on a bedroom floor. Her saturated colors and intentional distortions lend each object a heightened presence, transforming seemingly mundane items into powerful symbols and storytelling devices.
Exquisite Corpse 2022, 48 x 79 in (121.92 x 200.66 cm)
Acrylic on Canvas
Dinner Party II
2022, 14 x 17 in
(35.56 x 43.18 cm)
Oil on Canvas
Dinner Party IV
2022, 14 x 17 in
(35.56 x 43.18 cm)
Oil on Canvas
Duncan’s work taps into the traditional still life genre, where motifs like flowers or shells have long evoked femininity and the body. However, she reimagines these symbols through a contemporary lens, incorporating modern artifacts such as the female bust sculpture, IUDs, accessories, and beauty products. These items are cultural touchstones, encapsulating ideals of gender, femininity, and sexuality. By magnifying these objects in her work, Duncan challenges the viewer to reconsider their meanings, prompting reflection on how society assigns value and meaning to the things we carry and use daily. Her sculpture You're Welcome carries a subtle critique, particularly in the context of femininity and gender expectations. The phrase, commonly used as a polite response, is presented in supersized ceramic letters strung together, appearing playful and casual yet hinting at deeper cultural implications. Women are often expected to be agreeable, polite, and accommodating, and this phrase, while seemingly innocuous, symbolizes a socially ingrained, gendered expectation of compliance and politeness. By using a playful approach and contrasting materials, Duncan invites viewers to reflect on the cultural burden of these gendered roles, encouraging them to question the expectations behind everyday phrases like “You're Welcome.”
Origin Story
2022, 46 x 58 in (116.84 x 147.32 cm)
Acrylic on Canvas
Through her unique blend of historical references and modern objects, Duncan’s art reframes the everyday as both personal and universal. Her work invites viewers to consider the quiet intimacy of objects that are often overlooked, yet deeply embedded in the rituals of self-care and identity. With each oversized item, she emphasizes the potent role these objects play as markers of aspiration, memory, and identity, transforming them into poignant symbols of contemporary life and gender expression.
You’re Welcome 2022, 148 x 64 x 6 in (375.92 x 162.56 x 15.24 cm)
Ceramic sculpture and rope
Continuing Comfort
2023, 36 x 60 in
(91.44 x 152.4 cm)
Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
Gina M. Contreras, a San Francisco-based artist, navigates themes of intimacy, vulnerability, and memory through her deeply introspective works. Drawing on her personal history and Mexican heritage, Contreras creates spaces rich in pattern, symbolism, and emotional resonance. Her intimate self-portraits invite viewers into a world of quiet introspection, blending literal and symbolic imagery that unveils her inner life. In these works, Contreras bares both soul and body, evoking a sense of voyeurism stripped of any overt sexuality. Each painting draws viewers not only into its narrative but into a layered psychological space where Contreras’s emotions and memories intersect.
Set within the confines of her bedroom, these scenes often feature her forlorn alter-ego, surrounded by objects that offer her comfort and connection to the past. By adding personal elements from her own space, such as a tiger blanket gifted by her mother and cherished rosary beads, she reveals herself and her environment in an act of profound openness. This vulnerability gives her art its distinctive power, but Contreras embraces this exposure without reservation. As she explains, “I’m always painting myself nude, so I’m already laying everything bare. This openness means I don’t worry about oversharing.”
In Continued Comfort, a key work from her solo exhibition of the same name at Stephanie Chefas Projects, Contreras captures the tension of processing loss, exploring how familiar objects provide emotional refuge. In Keep Me For My Softness, she envelops herself in her mother’s tiger blanket, inviting viewers to ponder whether the “softness” speaks to the blanket itself, her mother’s nurturing presence, or an aspect of Contreras’s own personality.
Keep Me For My Softness
2023, 48 x 36 in (121.92 x 91.44 cm)
Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
Shifting Pleasures
2023, 36 x 36 in (91.44 x 91.44 cm)
Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
Through her distinct style, which flattens perspective and merges background and foreground, Contreras transforms personal space into a stage for intimate storytelling. Each piece reveals a layered emotional landscape, bridging memory and heritage in ways that feel both personal and universally resonant. Her work invites viewers into a space of reflection, where the everyday objects of comfort and nostalgia become powerful symbols of identity, connection, and self-acceptance.
We Shall Always Be Alone
2023, 48 x 36 in (121.92 x 91.44 cm)
Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
Consumption No. 36
This existential tension Image Consumption critiques the commodification identity in a consumer-driven theme of “consumption” material goods to human Huang examines the where beauty and individuality consumed as fleeting works often depict distorted beneath water or transparent embodying the pressures of consumer culture. unsettling images question sustainability of consuming and personal identities
Image
2009, 62.99 x 62.99 in (160 x 160 cm) Oil on Canvas
tension evolves in Huang’s series, where she commodification of human consumer-driven age. The “consumption” extends beyond human images and ideals. relentless societal pace individuality are fleeting commodities. Her distorted female faces transparent membranes, pressures and superficiality culture. These alluring yet question the consuming physical objects identities alike.
Image Consumption No. 40 2009, 70.87 x 59.06 in (180 x 150 cm)
Oil on Canvas
Camouflage
2012, 23.62 x 23.62 in (60 x 60 cm) Oil on Canvas
In HUANG Hairong's art, water emerges as a central motif, symbolic and layered in meaning. For Huang, water is both a fundamental element of life and a metaphor for human existence in a rapidly changing world. It represents fluidity, transformation, and vulnerability. Water in her works often acts as a mirror, reflecting humanity’s connection to nature, while simultaneously serving as a medium that distorts and reshapes submerged figures. Ripples, bubbles, and distortions evoke the tension between destruction and renewal, highlighting the fragile relationship between humanity and the environment. Huang’s use of water is poetic yet critical, suggesting a space where beauty and fragility coexist in a precarious balance.
Huang’s Breathe series draws from her childhood experiences of playing in water, where holding her breath and resurfacing became a rhythm of survival. In Floating, a submerged female figure is depicted in a suspended moment of struggle and beauty. The interaction of water and light distorts her form, creating a palpable tension between fluidity and confinement. Ripples and bubbles amplify her struggle for breath, symbolizing resilience amidst vulnerability, while the vivid palette conveys the dynamic yet suffocating nature of identity and survival. This instinctual rhythm of holding and releasing breath becomes a metaphor for humanity’s fragile negotiation with a damaged environment. Water, as both life-giving and suffocating, links beauty with fragility and resilience with entrapment.
Mayfly No. 5
2013, 42.13 x 78.74 in (107 x 200 cm)
Oil on Canvas
Born in Instruction No. 1
2024, 31.50 x 23.62 in (80 x 60 cm) Oil on Canvas
In her latest series, Born in Instruction into the intersections of femininity, artificial intelligence. Water between the organic and synthetic, futuristic visions in her recurring humanoid female figures interact the fluid boundaries between and nature. This interplay reflects distortion and deeper conceptual identity and relationships in Huang’s art critiques the paradox pursuit of beauty and luxury and alienation. Her works, though challenge viewers to reflect disposable nature of contemporary
Born in Instruction No. 2
2024, 31.50 x 23.62 in (80 x 60 cm)
Oil on Canvas
Instruction, Huang delves femininity, futurism, and becomes a bridge synthetic, grounding her recurring motif. Here, interact with water, exploring between humanity, technology, reflects both physical conceptual inquiries into an AI-driven future. paradox of modern life: the often leads to destruction though visually captivating, on the fragile and contemporary society.
Hung Liu (1948–2021) was a Chinese-American renowned for her reinterpretations of photographs, which served as the foundation her work. Drawing from images of marginalized Chinese history—such as women, refugees, laborers—Liu transformed these documentary photographs into powerful painted portraits preserved and questioned their historical process involved applying washes and original images, symbolizing the fading the passage of time. This technique flow down the canvas, as if the images dissolving, suggesting both the erosion memory and the lingering presence Front and Back
Chinese-American artist of historical Chinese foundation for much of marginalized figures in refugees, soldiers, and documentary portraits that both historical narratives. Her and drips over the fading of memory and allowed the paint to images themselves were erosion of historical of those lives.
White Butterflies
2011, 66 x 56 in (167.64 x 142.24 cm)
Oil on Linen
Liu grew up in Maoist China, studying mural painting at Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Art before moving to the United States in 1984. There, at the University of California, San Diego, she explored new artistic avenues under the guidance of Allan Kaprow. Despite her new environment, Liu continued to root her work in Chinese historical photography, giving voice to the anonymous and often forgotten individuals documented in these photos. Her paintings were not merely reproductions but rather reinventions, bringing personal and cultural stories to the surface that were hidden within the photographs.
A significant element of Liu's work is its feminist perspective. Her art often focused on historical Chinese photographs of ordinary individuals—particularly women, children, and the elderly—transforming them into monumental figures through her portraits. By reimagining these marginalized subjects with dignity and grandeur, Liu presented them as symbols of resilience and strength, challenging traditional narratives that sidelined their significance. Her approach celebrated the humanity of these individuals, honoring their endurance and heroism as icons across time and culture.
Today, her paintings are housed in prominent institutions, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Art, preserving her legacy as a vital voice in both Chinese and American art histories.
To Create Mankind’s Happiness
2013, 20.5 x 20.5 in (52.07 x 52.07 cm)
Mixed media/resin with paint
Light Source
2016, 20.5 x 41 in (52.07 x 104.14 cm)
Mixed media/resin with paint
Sleep
2015, 68 x 40 in (172.72 x 101.6 cm) Ink, Water on Canvas
Ren Light Pan is a Chinese-American transgender artist whose work confronts identity, transformation, and the interplay between culture and gender. Growing up in an immigrant family, Pan navigated a dual cultural existence, rooted in Mandarin and Chinese traditions while immersed in the American landscape. Her work bridges traditional Chinese ink painting and contemporary art strategies, such as deconstruction, anti-gestures, and photographic influences, creating a space for tension, harmony, and self-discovery.
The featured work, Loneliness, created before the artist came out as a trans woman, serves as a haunting testament to a period she refers to as "the dark years that came before." Crafted with Chinese water ink and imprinted with the artist’s pre-transition body, the work captures the raw, unspoken tensions of an identity in flux. The title itself underscores the isolation and disconnection experienced during this time, when the artist grappled with a sense of misalignment and a longing for self-recognition.
The materiality of the work—fluid, mutable, and rooted in tradition—acts as both a mirror and a metaphor for the artist’s internal struggle. The body imprint transforms the ink into a deeply personal archive of presence and absence, symbolizing the fragile interplay between self-awareness and concealment. Revisited post-transition, Loneliness bridges past and present, offering viewers a powerful exploration of identity, vulnerability, and the profound journey toward self-realization.
Pan debuted in 2022 with a solo show at Queer Thoughts, New York, and has since exhibited with Asia Society Texas and NADA Miami, among others. Her art invites audiences to consider the fluid intersections of identity, culture, and materiality, offering a poignant meditation on the transformative potential of art and the complexities of the queer experience.
Glowing on Sunday Morning, Krystal Kleen Coin Laundry, Beverly Blvd & N Normandie Ave
2017, 24 x 18 in
(60.96 x 45.72 cm)
Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
I.D, PAN, KWON-YUAN, M, R.I.P.
2017, 32 x 24 in (81 x 61 cm) Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
Selfie W Titties
2017, 32 x 24 in (81.28 x 60.96 cm)
Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
Single-user bathroom, Trader Joe's, Wilshire Blvd & 23rd St
2017, 24 x 18 in (60.96 x 45.72 cm)
Ink, Water, California Sun and Canvas
Being Trapped
2020, 19 x 11 x 14 in
(48.26 x 27.94 x 35.56 cm)
Mixed Media
Different Life
2020, 5 x 22 x 7 in
(12.7 x 55.88 x 17.78 cm)
Mixed Media
Stella Zhang’s work is a visceral exploration of the body as a site of memory, identity, and transformation. Drawing on her multicultural experiences and classical Chinese training, Zhang uses diverse artistic practices—including sculpture, painting, and installation—to articulate themes of psychological tension and societal fragmentation. The works featured in the exhibition, predominantly created during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, reflect Zhang’s introspection while quarantined. Her black-and-white self-portraits anchor the exhibition, probing the vulnerabilities of the human form within the context of political, environmental, and emotional upheaval.
2020, 18 x 13 x 5 in
(45.72 x 33.02 x 12.7 cm)
Mixed Media
2020, 10 x 15 x 12 in
(25.4 x 38.1 x 30.48 cm)
Mixed Media
Innocent Victim
Irreparable Incomplete
2020, 12 x 9 x 3 in (30.48 x 22.86 x 7.62 cm)
Mixed Media
Invisible Landscape
2020, 16 x 14 x 2 in (40.64 x 35.56 x 5.08 cm)
Mixed Media
2020, 40 x 30 x 26 in
(101.6 x 76.2 x 66.04 cm)
Mixed Media
Through her use of different mediums, Zhang investigates how the body becomes a repository for cultural and personal narratives. Her materials are chosen for their ability to evoke the dualities of fragility and resilience, intimacy and tension. Whether through sculptural installations, ink-inspired paintings, or tactile mixed-media works, Zhang captures the complexity of the human experience. Her creations are both intimate and universal, offering a cathartic reflection on the human condition and the intricate interplay between physical and emotional landscapes.
Zhang’s sculptures, central to her practice, often feature fabric, metallic threads, and acrylic paint. These materials are twisted, stitched, and layered to evoke the fragility and resilience of the body. Her three-dimensional works are tactile and dynamic, inviting viewers to consider the body's physicality and its metaphorical weight. In her sculptural series, slits, folds, and creases disrupt the surface, symbolizing wounds and repair while blurring boundaries between interior and exterior spaces.
Observance
2020, 17 x 24 x 4 in
(43.18 x 60.96 x 10.16 cm)
Mixed Media
Noah’s Ark
2020, 10 x 33 x 14 in
(25.4 x 83.82 x 35.56 cm)
Mixed Media
Open a Window
2020, 36 x 22 x 2 in
(91.44 x 55.88 x 5.08 cm)
2020, 26 x 15 x 7 in
(66.04 x 38.1 x 17.78 cm)
Mixed Media
Token-1
Mixed Media
Trapped
2020, 6 x 16 x 9 in
(15.24 x 40.64 x 22.86 cm)
Mixed Media
Unreadable Book
2020, 9 x 23 x 4 in
(22.86 x 58.42 x 10.16 cm)
Mixed Media
Second Skin-2
2021, 59 x 36 x 4 in
(149.86 x 91.44 x 10.16 cm)
Mixed Media
Falling Waltz
2023, 11 x 11 x 11 in (27.94 x 27.94 x 27.94 cm)
Mixed Media
You Wang is a Chinese artist celebrated for her exploration of human identity, emotion, and the psychological connection between individuals and their surroundings. Her work is characterized by vibrant colors, surreal compositions, and theatrical staging, creating dreamlike scenes that invite viewers into layered psychological landscapes. Drawing from both Western surrealism and Chinese aesthetics, Wang’s paintings feature expressive figures, symbolic animals, plants, and patterns, all arranged in unconventional compositions that break traditional boundaries. Through her unique style, she creates a narrative space where viewers can explore themes of solitude, connection, and the fluidity of self.
I Hate Love
2023, 78.74 x 70.87 in (200 x 180 cm)
Acrylic on Canvas
In Party in South Park, Wang captures four dancers in a desert-like landscape filled with cacti and wildflowers. Rather than focusing on peak performance moments or intricate dance movements, she portrays the dancers in unguarded, neutral states, capturing a raw, authentic presence. As Wang explains, “Although I am painting dancers, in these works I did not depict difficult dance movements or the best-looking moments. I wanted to capture the dancers in a neutral, non-stage state. A dancer’s body is their face; they don’t need excessive facial expressions to convey emotion. I try to paint their fingertips with the same sincerity as their eyes, where their mood and feelings also reside—fragile, melancholic, neurotic, powerful, dashing, ambitious… They can embody a hundred emotions or be completely empty. They don’t need a ‘persona,’ or even a specific stage; their bodies can house different souls and express them through dance, constantly renewing themselves.”
Party in South Park 2023, 85.04 x 70.87 in (216 x 180 cm)
Acrylic on Canvas
Located in downtown Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley, Qualia Contemporary Art is dedicated to showcasing outstanding established and emerging artists working in a variety of media. The gallery is committed to building lasting relationships with artists, collectors, curators, and scholars nationally and internationally, and providing a vital platform for dialogues on contemporary art and culture in the Bay Area and beyond.
229 Hamilton Ave Palo Alto, CA 94301
https://www.qualiacontemporaryart.com