Cura Contemporary is a new gallery and art center located in the South Bay of San Francisco in Morgan Hill, CA. Our roster includes both emerging and mid-career artists whose work has a strong sense of materiality and whose practices embrace process. We have two floors of exhibition space that alternate monthly with group and solo shows.

"Haoyun Erin Zhao: Cloud Inscriptions" May 3rd - June 29th, 2025

Cura Contemporary presents Cloud Inscriptions, a solo exhibition by San Francisco-based artist Haoyun Erin Zhao, featuring paintings that explore movement and impermanence evoking the ethereal, transient nature of existence.

Zhao applies acrylic to canvas alternating between the smoothness of airbrush, the texture of paint brush, and the tactility of the original fabric surface. The transparency of paint, color gradients, and overlapping forms create an interplay of layers that seem to weave through one another where positive sometimes becomes negative and vice versa. Interacting with the edge of the painting, script-like remnants are sometimes contained and other times seem to erupt beyond the picture plane. The unfixed nature of the pieces’ visual language facilitates a conversation between each work and the viewer, capturing moments, thoughts, and energies that are fleeting yet profound – inviting the viewer to acknowledge the significance of immersing themselves in the fluidity of the present moment as they stand with each work.

In their dynamic layers and compositions, the pieces in Cloud Inscriptions reflect the invisible currents that shape our lives – the imprints of our thoughts and emotions and the intricate dance between what is seen and what is felt. Through the visual suggestions of the natural world, each piece serves as an invitation to slow down and embrace the delicate balance between presence and impermanence. Like inscriptions in the sky, these works offer traces of meaning that are both timeless and elusive, encouraging us to contemplate the connections between the self, nature, and the cosmos.

About the Artist: Haoyun Erin Zhao is a multidisciplinary artist based in San Francisco, California, primarily working in painting, printmaking, and installation. Rooted in her study of Eastern and Western Philosophy, Zhao's artistic inquiry delves into the intangibility of perception, manifested through the physicality of her chosen materials. Paying particular attention to the interaction of light, color, and form, Zhao uses transparency and abstraction to emulate the ethereal and elusive nature of human consciousness. Zhao derives inspiration from multicultural influence, literature, linguistics, nature, everyday environment, and more. Zhao is the recipient of Swatch Art Peace Hotel Residency (Shanghai, China), Golden Foundation for the Arts (New York, U.S.), Meta Open Arts (Burlingame, U.S.), Edition/Basel Residency (Basel, Switzerland), Kala Art Institute Residency (Berkeley, U.S), etc. The artist’s work has been showcased at renowned venues including the Exploratorium Museum, de Young Museum, and the International Print Center New York. Her work is in collections such as Google, IBM, LinkedIn, ICBC, Meta, Kaiser Permanente, Boston Children’s Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and numerous private collections.

Summer Group Show June 7th – July 27th, 2025

We are excited to announce our summer group show featuring new work by our represented and exhibited artists. This exhibition features work that is tactile, colorful, and unexpected across a variety of mediums including painting, photography, printmaking, textiles, ceramic, glass, and wood.

Over 45% of our artists are from the Bay Area, with 4 being hyper-local to Morgan Hill, San Jose, and Gilroy. Our group and solo exhibitions alternate monthly, providing something new to view each time you visit. Learn more here.

Images:

Cura Contemporary

Cura Contemporary: Haoyun Erin Zhao - Letter to the Unknown #8

Summer Group Show