PETRICHOR

[If you are interested in purchasing a work, please contact the gallery for more information.]

UPPER MARKET GALLERY is pleased to present PETRICHOR, another group exhibition curated by Jane Galerie. This showcase features the distinct artistic approaches of five Bay Area-based artists: Nancy Nguyen, Maya Fuji, Lucia Aguilar, Grace Jin, and Kaela Han. Each artist draws from their ancestral background to explore the subconscious and create new meaning in their present time and place.

The works follow a shared journey towards healing. Each artist reinterprets personal narratives from their past using imagined landscapes and rendering of the female figure. 

The work in this exhibition invites the viewer to imagine breathing air through the dirt, the debris, and the present-day challenges that come from the wounds of the past. In Nancy Nguyen’s Fish Jump (2024) and Kaela Han’s Ambedo (2024), the artists ponder the phenomena of time, highlighting its unfolding, guiding to clearer moments. Grace Jin’s Wandering Womb (2024) reconsiders Robert Riggs’ Psychopathic Ward (1939) to question the medical and male gaze, the male gaze begging the question of who is pathologized and what it means to be well-adjusted in an ill society. 

Another significant theme of the exhibition is the exploration of identity and otherness, particularly within the liminal space of being a multi-racial and multicultural woman living in the United States. Maya Fuji’s Self Reflection (2022) presents a seated figure floating in the clouds, her shiny black hair flowing through her fingers, her lips and nipples imbued with dabs of scarlet reflected in the clouds and butterflies around her. It is only once the viewer is close enough to make eye contact with Fuji’s dream-like figure that one sees the tears in her eyes. Lucia Aguilar’s Sitting, Dreaming (2024) refuses to meet the viewer’s gaze, too preoccupied with basking in the comfort of her fabrics and femininity. Grace Jin’s two feminine figures in Su Nü Jing (2024) confront the viewer through the playful and inviting expressions of their movements. 

The exhibition is a re-imagination of the darker elements of femininity thoughtfully recontextualized through a lens of the triumph that comes from carving a space for self-reflection and reverie.

For inquiries: janie@janegalerie.com

opening reception: march 8, 5-8pm

show duration: march 8 - march 23

open hours: fridays and saturdays, 12-5pm, & by appointment