Gallery Jatad

Gallery Jatad is a tiny gallery in a dilapidated strip-​mall on a socioeconomically, ethnically, & racially diverse corner of the Museum District. It specializes in traditional African art, & also features some original contemporary works, & some limited edition prints of contemporary works by local artists. Most of the African pieces are figures, though the gallery also exhibits a few masks & housewares. Most of the local pieces are wall art, though just this Saturday, a local textile artist, Nadia Khan displayed & sold her scarves & ties at the gallery, which also sells some jewelry. Prices start in the hundreds of dollars.
Although the place is only a year old, it already has a checkered past – the strip-​mall that houses it was ravaged by a fire in August (
). The gallery’s collection (which happily was insured) suffered smoke-​damage, & sadly, 2 works – co-​owner Lisa Quall’s own were lost.
I’ve been intrigued by-​, but wary of this place for some time. I’m *not* an art person. I know nothing about art, but have a keen interest in it & as this place is my local gallery, I just couldn’t resist stopping in when I read about their holiday pop-​up.
I don’t know what I was expecting from Gallery Jatad – I sometimes pop into small galleries, but am inevitably rebuffed when the staff learn that I’m too poor to purchase their artwork & too stupid to appreciate it properly, & I understand this perspective completely.
But Gallery Jatad is different. Husband & wife team Matt Scheiner & Lisa Qualls are both the gallery’s co-​owners & its sole employees. They greeted me warmly when I came through the door & offered me some holiday cheer.
I spoke w Lisa. We had a cozy chat about neighborly things – the fire, the gallery, our home-​lives, etc. But we also talked about the art, & about our lives in the context of the art.
I was especially interested in the wall art. The gallery is presently exhibiting the work of Corpus Christi artist Jimmy Peña – an ex-​military guy who works in mixed mediums on wood. As Mr. Peña suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, his works of art are real labors of love, but they’re easy for a viewer to love – intense, but not completely dark. My favorite piece – «No safe place to die» is a somber study in charcoal on wood depicting the soul (represented by the bottom of an aerosol can embedded into the wood) leaving the body of a dying man (
). Two related works flank this – one depicting the man’s widow, who doesn’t see the soul’s ascent b/​c she is too mired in her own grief (
); the other depicting the man’s dog, who follows it fixedly & w avidity. I was very moved that a former soldier could have such a view of death – complex & conflicted, but ultimately somewhat optimistic.
And I very much appreciated Lisa’s response to how I saw this piece in the context of my own life – far from being condescending, as I’d worried she might be, she seemed to really listen to & consider what I had to say. Her helpful guidance, openness, & considerateness toward both artist & viewer made my experience a remarkable one.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Gallery Jatad, which I found to be both moving & thought-​provoking. Lisa Qualls seems a humane proprietor, & Jimmy Peña, a humane choice of featured-​artists. The gallery is a place of contradictions, which exhibits w/​o irony or pretentiousness the most exotic & the most local of art – the traditional alongside the contemporary, the utilitarian alongside the intimate, all in one tiny suite, 2 doors down from the burned-​out shell of a former washateria in a tatty old strip mall.
I left enriched & can’t wait to go back. *Definitely recommended.*
N.B., Jimmy Peña’s work is on exhibit through January 18, 2014, but the gallery is closed for the holidays from December 23, 2013. If you’d like to view «No safe place to die», but can’t make it to Gallery Jatad in time, you may eventually be able to see it at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, which has expressed an interest. Otherwise, for upcoming exhibitions, see the calendar on Gallery Jatad’s website.