Marin artists open new art space in San Rafael

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Marin artists Sara Gallagher, left, and Tubi Ho are behind Studio 5 Contemporary. (Courtesy of Sara Gallagher)

It wasn’t too long ago that Marin artists Tubi Ho and Sara Gallagher met during a showing of Ho’s solo exhibit at Mill Valley’s Thompson | Dorfman Partners. But there, they instantly connected over their shared love of art and music and became fast friends, attending art shows together and working on their own artistic practices at Gallagher’s home studio in Nicasio.

“We shared space around art really well,” Gallagher said.

Now, the pair are hoping to create more conversations and community surrounding art and creativity with their new multi-faceted art space, Studio 5 Contemporary — a name that pays homage to the space’s history. (It’s listed as “Studio 5” on floor plans.)

The art space acts as an art gallery, working studio, showroom and event space, where, in the coming months, they’ll host art exhibitions, live music, art workshops and community conversations.

“We want it to be a welcoming public space and an inclusive gallery where people feel comfortable coming in and staying and being around that art and sitting on our couches and talking with us and bringing in their friends,” Gallagher said. “We want to bring that high-impact art to more people and make them feel welcome enough to sit with it to really experience that impact.”

The opening exhibit, “Abstracted Figures,” features mixed-media paintings by Kate Tova; abstract paintings by Jaime Lovejoy; disrupted realism by Calvin Lai; analog photography by Luke Kraman; interdisciplinary photo and sculpture by Kacy Jung; contemporary seascapes by Point Reyes Station artist Wolfgang Bloch; and pieces by Ho, a San Rafael artist who has been honing her craft for the last seven years. A grand opening with live music and food and drinks is from 6 to 9 tonight.

The title is a nod to the founders’ practices — with Ho’s abstract expressionism and Gallagher’s style of “emotional realism,” where she creates hyper-realistic drawings that encapsulate an emotional experience taken from conversations with community members around a prompt or topic, oftentimes in an effort to break stigmas around mental and emotional health.

In the show, some have figures. Some are purely abstract. And some are a blend between the two, like the two friends in this space.

“I love the dynamic of how we’re pretty much the opposite style,” Ho said. “We are in tune with each other’s creative energy. I feel very much understood by Sara throughout this whole thing.”

“Me too,” said Gallagher, who curated the show. “I love the way that our artwork really feels like it has a dialogue with each other. We both explore a lot of emotional themes in our artworks. It’s like opposite sides of the spectrum that one could convey or explore visually, and I find it very interesting and complementary. And it feels really great and empowering to offer other people’s work for sale that we believe to be of high value to the world.”

The exhibit runs through Sept. 7, with an artist panel discussion from 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 6.

“I have a background in interior design,” Ho said. “When I was really young, one of my first jobs was to assist an interior designer in the Oakland Hills, Montclair. I got to see a lot of beautiful homes and sold a lot of beautiful fabrics and interior design products. It really shaped me in my practice and how I create and assist people with their artistic choices.”

‘Came at the right time’

While Ho always had a knack for drawing and learned Chinese calligraphy at 10 years old, her fully realized artistic career came later in life, after she spent 15 years working as a professional musician. Living in Los Angeles at the time, it was hard to find consistency in the music business. She found herself struggling as a singer-songwriter with writer’s block.

After quitting less than a decade ago, she searched for a new creative outlet and way to express herself.

“Painting came at the right time,” she said. “I was going through a lot of things in my life, and it helped me just grow into the person I am today. Making art is my life, and I make art about my life and connect with people around my art. It’s this soul calling.”

And unlike music, she found she had a lot to say.

“When I found my creative voice in visual arts, this dialogue came out, and the core of my expression came out with visual arts,” said Ho, who has showcased her work at Art Works Downtown in San Rafael.

Expressing herself

For Gallagher, being a full-time artist has been her “north star,” a dream she had since she was 5 years old.

And around two and a half years ago, that dream became a reality.

“I have a degree in art and have always practiced, but I felt I reached my own ceiling. I was an oil painter, and I knew I had more to say, but with the medium I was using, I wasn’t able to express it that way,” she said.

Searching for her true medium, she went to a five-day graphite drawing workshop in Germany led by Dirk Dzimirsky, who would soon become her mentor. After experimenting for months, she created a technique she says uses “the precision of pencil but the velvety richness of paint,” then combined with connecting directly with the community.

“I finally found my voice with guidance from my mentor, and then I really listened to my own voice of what I was still missing and then found that and worked really diligently to find that. That’s when everything broke open for me, not just the technique but the why. It’s amazing how that resonated with the public in ways that I’ve never experienced my art resonate before,” said Gallagher, who is represented by San Francisco’s CK Contemporary but makes her artwork at her public-facing studio at Studio 5, which was the space’s inspiration at first and grew from there.

For them, there’s a specialness that comes from being artists first and foremost in this new venture.

Studio 5 Contemporary is open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays at 1327 Fourth St. in San Rafael. For more information and a list of future events and workshops, go to Studio5contemporary.com.

Originally Published: July 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM PDT