Events - Recology San Francisco
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EVENTS

Next Exhibition at the Dump

May 17, 18, and 21, 2024
This exhibition will present artwork made by Nicolaus Chaffin, Bryan Keith Thomas, and CCA MFA candidates Kelley Finley and Deena Qabazard during their residencies.

Reclaimed: The Art of Recology

National Tour: 2023 – Mid-2026
In collaboration with the Bedford Gallery.


Featured Past Exhibitions

The Art of Recology

The Artist in Residence Program 1990-2013
SFO Museum

Become Like Life Golden: Creativity Explored at Recology

Become Like Life Golden: Creativity Explored at Recology exhibits the work of twenty-seven artists who created artwork through a residency collaboration between Recology and Creativity Explored. Recology opened the facility, resources, and artistic commission to a wide group of developmentally disabled artists through the support of both organizations.

David Bayus
Thank You, Saint Anthony

Thank You, Saint Anthony is a new video and sculpture installation inspired by the rhyming Catholic prayer: “Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, please come around. Something is lost and needs to be found!” Often spoken by Bayus’s grandmother when looking for something, the incantation acts as the conceptual foundation for his residency at Recology.

Malcolm Kenter & Rachel Marino
City Limit

In their collaborative exhibition, City Limit, Malcolm Kenter and Rachel Marino present an immersive exhibition inspired by the infrastructure and detritus of the city and invite us to reexamine our everyday surroundings by combining pieces in a playful sculptural environment rendered slightly askew.

Omar Howaida El-Sabrout
in heaven
she won’t have pain
she won’t have anything

Creating tamy’ mud-bricks from compost and recovered clay, Stanford graduate Omar Howaida El-Sabrout constructs large sculptural forms reflecting cultural knowledge and a familial agricultural lineage passed down through oral storytelling across continents and generations, from Egypt to San Francisco, from grandfather and granduncle to El-Sabrout.

Raina Ho
503 Social Club

Over the course of her time in residence at Recology, Rania Ho created the 503 Social Club, an artistic platform for informal interactions, celebrations, and conversation; a convergence of people in their varied travels and migrations, housed in a facility that in itself is a transit station, a site for gathering thrown out materials and processing recyclables. 503 Social Club invites the public to partake in this serendipitous and experimental gathering space.

Leonard Reidelbach
intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally

In intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally, Leonard Reidelbach presents an immersive installation, loosely resembling the setting of an intimate function, a party-themed multiverse that highlights interconnectivity, potentiality, and moments of transformation.

Dana Hemenway
Conversation Pit

Dana Hemenway excavates utilitarian materials hidden within the infrastructure of the built environment, transforming them through fiber arts techniques to create sculptures that dissolve the boundaries between domestic crafts, interior design, and building labor. For Conversation Pit, Hemenway intertwines and layers an array of objects gathered during her time in-residence, reshaping them into a series of detailed sculptures that invite close inspection.

Kija Lucas
Still, Life

Kija Lucas uses photography to explore home, heritage, and memory–and how those ideas can be embedded in the objects we gather around us over time and across generations. In Still, Life, Lucas draws on the visual language of 16th and 17th century vanitas still lifes, an artistic genre that utilized opulent arrangements of symbolic objects like skulls, rotting food, and snuffed out candles to remind viewers of the transience of earthly life and the inevitability of decay.

Alise Anderson
French Toast Saved My Life

Alise Anderson investigates and celebrates the mundanity and absurdity of ordinary objects, creating carefully crafted and subtly humorous works that blur the line between functional & nonfunctional and investigate the social bonds between us as we live in community.

Minoosh Zomorodinia
The Conduit Between Spaces

Minoosh Zomorodinia uses sculpture, video, and the performances of daily life, like walking, to examine how the dynamics of power play out in urban spaces and nature. At Recology, Zomorodinia will exhibit a series of sculptural assemblages and stop motion videos exploring discarded elements from our everyday surroundings.

Leilah Talukder
Patterning Privacy

Leilah Talukder utilizes textiles and sculpture to explore the role they play in shaping human interactions, desire, and cultural power dynamics. At Recology, Talukder will present a line of wearable pieces that can act as tools in protests for social justice. Fashioned from materials sourced from the dump, Talukder suggests a model for how audiences might create their own wearables from what they have available.

Here to There

On August 3, the Recology Artist in Residence Program held the fifth panel in the RECOLOGY AIR CONNECTS series. The panel, “Here to There,” brought together three Recology alumni, Rodney Ewing, Genevieve Quick, and Weston Teruya, whose works explore histories of place, identity, and social dynamics. This conversation was moderated by Victor Yañez-Lazcano

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All In: Queer Intersections

In celebration of Pride Month 2021, the Recology Artist in Residence Program held the fourth-panel discussion in the series, RECOLOGY AIR CONNECTS. “All In: Queer Intersections,” brought together four artists whose works amplify queer identities at the intersections of culture, race, sexuality, and gender. Watch the recording of the dynamic conversation between AIR alumni Terry Berlier, Jamil Hellu, Cybele Lyle, Abel Rodriguez, and our moderator, Victor Yañez-Lazcano.

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Unearthed: Research as Art

On April 27 the third panel in the RECOLOGY AIR CONNECTS series “Unearthed: Research as Art” took place. A spin on Earth Month, this panel brought together four Recology alumni, Michael Arcega, Hughen/Starkweather, and Jenny Odell, whose research-based work unearths new narratives. Former Recology artist-in-residence Victor Yañez-Lazcano moderated the panel discussion.

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Recalled to Nature

The Recology Artist in Residence (AIR) Program in collaboration with Saddleback College hosted the second panel in our series, RECOLOGY AIR CONNECTS, on March 2.

Titled after Saddleback College’s virtual exhibition of work made at Recology curated by former AIR artist, Barbara Holmes, the panel “Recalled to Nature” brought together three vibrant voices from the Bay Area: Mark Baugh-Sasaki, Alicia Escott, and Minoosh Zomorodinia. In conversation with our moderators, Barbara Holmes and Victor Yañez-Lazcano, the artists discussed how they use art to explore the intersection of our social, political, and historical relationships to nature.

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Cultivating Common Ground

On January 12, 2021 we embarked on our new panel series, RECOLOGY AIR CONNECTS. The first panel, “Cultivating Common Ground,” was in conversation with former AIR artists Bill Basquin, Ramekon O’Arwisters, and Sherri Lynn Wood, moderated by Victor Yañez-Lazcano.

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Art | Sustainability | Community – Recology Student Artist Exhibition and Panel

At the beginning of this year, we celebrated the Recology Artist in Residence Program’s 30-year anniversary at Arc Gallery. The exhibition included work from past artists and dedication to our founder Jo Hanson. We simultaneously installed work from our student artists in our Environmental Learning Center for an exhibition that was planned for May 2020, which due to shelter-in-place mandates, was never seen by the public.

To celebrate the Recology Artist in Residence Program’s student artists, throughout the month of October we released a self-guided virtual tour of the student exhibition and featured videos that highlight a select number of student artists. The celebration culminated in the Art/Community/Sustainability Student Alum Panel, facilitated by former AIR artist, Victor Yañez-Lazcano, in conversation with Hannah Beatrice Quinn, Jinmei Chi, Ricki Dwyer, and Shushan Tesfuzigta on Tuesday, October 27, 2020, at 5:30 PM.

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Watercolor Monotypes with Kathy Aoki

Learn to create watercolor monotypes with Kathy Aoki! These watercolor paintings are transferred to paper as a flat print, utilizing just a few basic materials and no toxic solvents. Instead, this project makes use of recycled and unfinished beer- find out how in this 12-minute video workshop.

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Cartoons for the Environment with Sirron Norris

Recology artist-in-residence Sirron Norris teaches us how to spread the message of reuse through basic cartooning techniques. Best for ages 9+

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Woodworking Fundamentals with Curtis Reid Henderson: The Pursuit of Quality and Sustainability during Times of Uncertainty

In this workshop, former Recology / San Francisco Art Institute student artist and GLEAN artist Curtis Reid Henderson, will teach us how to create a high-quality wood table that will stand the test of time. Some previous experience using power tools is suggested, but no dedicated space is required for this workshop.

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Creating Cyanotype Prints at Home with Charlotte Beck

Second in the series, Diverting Waste Through Natural Dyes, this video shows how to use common food scraps to create beautiful dyes for textiles and clothing.

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DIY Vertical Dye Garden with Leilah Talukder and Cailyn Schmidt

In this first video of the three-part series, Diverting Waste Through Natural Dyes, learn to create a vertical garden for small spaces.

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Five Food Scraps You Can Turn Into Natural Dyes with Leilah Talukder and Cailyn Schmidt

Second in the series, Diverting Waste Through Natural Dyes, this video shows how to use common food scraps to create beautiful dyes for textiles and clothing.

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Basic Mending to Extend the Life of Your Clothing with Leilah Talukder

Third in the series, Diverting Waste Through Natural Dyes, this final video teaches five simple sewing and mending techniques to extend the life of your clothing.

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