November 2025 / Tensions of the Tangible

Tensions of the Tangible

Curated by Jia Jia and Yongqi Tang

Artists:
Amelie Wang
Jia Jia
Ruichao Jiang
Sabrina Haertig Gonzalez
Sarah Barnett
Xi Li
Yongqi Tang

November 6 - 29, 2025

Opening Reception, Thursday, November 6, 5-8pm

Gallery Hours:
Friday–Sunday, 11–4pm

Tensions of the Tangible, brings sculpture, painting, photography, and installation to explore the complex interplay of identity, memory, and materiality. Rooted in the artists’ diverse practices, the show examines themes of labor, history, and the mediated body in a rapidly evolving global context.

This multidisciplinary exhibition invites viewers to engage with interwoven narratives of historical erasure, technological intervention, and sociocultural complexity. Utilizing dynamic spatial arrangements, the show transforms the gallery into an immersive environment where individual works converse through shared themes.

The artists’ thoughtful use of materials, from textured paint to reconstructed photographs and tactile sculptures, ensures a sensorially rich experience. By bridging past and future, real and imagined, the exhibition challenges audiences to reflect on their own roles in the unfolding narratives of power, identity, and connection.

Artist Statements // Bios

Sabrina Haertig Gonzalez is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist in sculpture, installation, painting, and text. Her practice explores the boundaries between bodies, objects, and products, collapsing and reshaping these divides through materiality and consumption. By uncovering absurd and perverse phenomena within the commercial economy, Gonzalez invites a reimagining of post-colonial and post-apocalyptic futures, challenging our conditioned understanding of exchange and foregrounding narratives of extraction. Recently, she has been exploring hybrid sculptural interventions that facilitate co-creation and physical activation, particularly around themes of female and working-class labor. Can a work inspire actions towards sovereignty by heightening awareness of the exhaustive economy through bodily implication?

https://www.sabrinahaertiggonzalez.com/

Sarah Barnett

My representational paintings create uncertainty through close-ups, distortions, and visual juxtapositions. Conceptually, my work draws from interests in anatomy, medical science, science fiction, film, and Baroque painting, reflecting on technology’s role in life-preservation and mortality. Each piece explores connections between vision, simulation, the corporeal, and the uncanny. I approach composition with a cinematic mindset, working from references such as photo collages or found objects like vintage medical equipment and scientific glassware. While I aim for detail and realism, my imagery frequently shifts toward ambiguity, blurring the line between the real and the surreal. My work reflects my own conflicted feelings about our rapidly evolving present and uncertain future, inviting viewers into a push-pull tension that encourages introspection.

https://www.sarahbarnettart.com/

Amelie Wang

“What one is doing in one’s own studio doesn’t sound like the same question as what is happening in the country, but very often, they are the same question.” -- William Kentridge

In my studio, I think a lot about China, my family, my ancestors, our history, the struggles and turbulence. My painting practice deals with specific conundrums constituted by the cultural environment of my upbringing, and how the socio-cultural influences manifest into an individual’s daily life. The paintings communicate my confusion and curiosity to understand the censored history of China and function as my attempt to understand how these historical events, government decisions, and social structures impacted my family; then, the impact manifests itself in family dynamics shapes the individual experiences. I incorporate color, layer, and materiality of paint to create spaces in the paintings that allow these stories, emotions, and ideas to unfold, posing the question of how to find a sense of grounding in a confused and uncertain space where we were placed into.

https://www.ameliewang10.com/

Xi Li is an artist working in photography, video, and installation to examine the process of image-making and the construction of alternative narratives in contemporary media culture. She is drawn to how images shape, circulate, migrate, reproduce, and decay through media, culture, and history. To investigate and reflect on how images influence our perception of the world and ourselves, Li restores images from institutional archives, collective memories, and personal collections. She then reconstructs these images three-dimensionally in the studio, creating works that blur the boundaries between actual and fictive.

https://xili.studio/

Ruichao Jiang is a multidisciplinary artist currently based in New York, whose artistic practice encompasses speculative design, installation, textile, and illustration. Her recent practice examines cultural and societal phenomena through speculative narratives, exploring themes of evolutionary behavioral studies, gender and human/non-human relationships. She holds a Bachelor of Agriculture in Landscape Architecture from Southwest University in China and a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, and her self-published brochure is part of the collection at the Met Library.

https://www.ruichao-jiang.com/

Born in 1997 in China, Yongqi Tang is an artist and educator based in Seattle, WA. Since 2015, she has studied and worked between China and the United States. She now teaches as an assistant professor at Central Washington University. Her practice explores themes of femininity and the diasporic experience, examining how the construction of narratives shapes cognition and challenges the stability of self-image in both private and public spaces. By reconstructing classical imagery and mythology, Tang’s work seeks to preserve and reimagine the past, creating a personal dimension where time, memory, and resonance unfold. Her works explore a variety of materials such as oil, watercolor, acrylic, and charcoal.

Recent solo exhibitions have been mounted at Latitude Gallery, New York; Le Scalze, Naples; Jupiter Contemporary in Miami, FL; T293 Gallery in Rome, Italy. She has participated in residencies including Fountainhead Residency(2024), Amazon AIR Program(2023), and Field Projects(2022). She is recipient of the 2025 Greg Krucera &Larry Yocom Fellowship,Artist Trust GAP Award (2023), Bernie Funk Artist Scholarship (2022), the Puget Sound Group of Northwest Artists Scholarship Award (2022). Her art has been covered in numerous outlets, including Artnet, New American Paintings, Whitehot Magazine, Booooooom, Impulse magazine, and elsewhere.

https://yongqitang.blog/

Jia Jia

My art is an exploration of identity, adaptation, and the nuanced resistance against the pressures of capitalism and politics. Through my work, I delve into the intricate tapestry of my personal journey, navigating a world shaped by globalization and migration. By illuminating the complexities of cultural assimilation and power dynamics, my art serves as a mirror to the immigration experiences, challenging societal norms and questioning the individual of being reduced to a mere "product" conforming to efficiency standards. Through my artistic expression, I celebrate resilience and the ongoing process of identity navigation in a diverse and ever-evolving society. And my art invites viewers to engage with themes of adaptation, subtle resistance, and imperfection.

https://www.jiajiajj.com/