Reduce, reuse, recycle, relove. Join us in 2023.
Samedi Djeimguero working on a multimedia sculpture in the Recology AIR studios
Over the past few months, CE artists have been hard at work turning trash into treasure as part of a first-of-its-kind collaboration with the Recology Artist-in-Residence Program. Now, to kick off our 40th anniversary, we unveil their masterpieces in our first exhibition of the year: RELOVE.
Artists at CE have often worked with recycled materials, but this collaboration enabled them to work on a grander scale. Objects that at first glance seem useless (plastic jewelry, broken doors, punching bags) have been given new life by CE artists, who found opportunity in the most unlikely of places.
The prolific Samedi Djeimguero reinvented white styrofoam and dead-stock costume jewelry into a life-sized multimedia wonderland, complete with gem-encrusted caves, colorfully painted surfaces, and intricate drawings. Daniel Green fully illuminated a treasure trove of old record sleeves, while pattern-prone artist Ethel Revita discovered a new medium in jettisoned house paints.
RELOVE is the culmination of hours of labor by staff and artists alike. From scavenging for recycled materials at the Recology Transfer Station to working with artists in the studio to realize their visions, our teaching artists have been integral to this residency. This exhibition is a testament to the magic of collaboration, the unique symbiosis between CE artists and their beloved teaching artists that makes up the very essence of CE.
RELOVE shows what happens when artists push past tradition to share their vision of the world and expand perspectives on what can be. The transformation of these once-discarded objects is nothing less than magical, inspiring us all to cherish what we have and find meaning in the mundane.
Curated by Josefin Lundahl
A record sleeve illustrated by Daniel Green
Read more about our collaboration with Recology AIR on our blog ▸
The works created during the residency will be exhibited at Recology in Become Like Life Golden, opening January 20 through January 24, and then will move to the CE gallery for RELOVE, opening January 26. Visit during gallery hours — check back for details in 2023.
Featured Artists
Ian Adams, Julien Borromeo, Ada Chow, Kevin Cordoba, Peter DeLira, Samedi Djeimguero, Ricardo Estella, Allura Fong, Isaias Gomez, Daniel Green, JD Green, Jesus Huezo, John Iwaszewicz, Lakeshia King, Loren King, Angel Lara, David Li, Taneya Lovelace, Jason Monzon, Ayanna Wirsha Norwood, Joseph Omolayole, Musette Perkins, Roland Record, Ethel Revita, Clementina Rivera, Anne Slater, Tranesha Smith-Kilgore, Gerald Wiggins
Featured Staff
Victor Cartagena, Ajit Chauhan, Zoe Chotzen-Tsuruda, Leeza Doreian, Laura Figa, Alex Hernandez, Lacey Johnson, Victor Molina, Paul Moshammer, Pilar Olabarria, Glenn Packman, Enrique Quintero, Patricia Rubio
Opening Reception
January 26, 2022 at the CE gallery and studio
5:00 - 6:00 PM | VIP Donor Exclusive Preview
(by invitation only for CE donors)
6:00 - 8:00 PM | Public Reception
(free and open to all!)
Proof of full vaccination (including booster) required to attend. Masks or face-coverings are required while not eating or drinking. No RSVP is required but capacity is limited. Please plan accordingly!
Want to become a CE donor and join the preview? Make a donation of $50 or more to receive the invite or email us at development@creativityexplored.org to check your donor status.
RELOVE Curatorial Walkthough with Josefin Lundahl
Become Like Life Golden
Creativity Explored at Recology
Recology AIR will be exhibiting artworks created during our residency collaboration at their studios in Become Like Life Golden (a title from our very own Samedi Djeimguero!), opening January 20. Admission is free and open to the public, no reservation required. All ages are welcome and the site is wheelchair accessible. Masks will be required at all times for those over 2 years old.
Friday, January 20 from 5-8pm
Saturday, January 21 from 12-3pm
Tuesday, January 24 from 5-7:30pm
Location
Recology Art Studios at 503 Tunnel Avenue
Environmental Learning Center Gallery at 401 Tunnel Avenue
ABOUT RECOLOGY ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
The Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence (AIR) Program is an art and education initiative that awards Bay Area artists access to discarded materials, an unrestricted stipend, and an individual studio space. These resources, along with comprehensive support, are provided to artists while they create a body of work and host studio visits during their four-month residency. Since 1990, over 150 professional artists and 50 student artists from local universities and colleges have completed residencies. These emerging, mid-career, and established artists have worked across disciplines—including new media, video, painting, photography, performance, sculpture, and installation—to explore a wide range of topics.
Recology AIR encourages the conservation of natural resources by providing artists with time, space, and reusable resources to create a new and impactful body of work. The mission of the Artist in Residence Program is to empower all communities to conserve natural resources by providing professional Bay Area artists and university students with access to materials at the public dump, a workspace, stipend, and ongoing opportunities to exhibit work in public spaces. Through our programming, we work to amplify the voices of systemically marginalized populations, offer a community space for learning, and host a public education program that inspires children and adults to reimagine their role in creating a just and sustainable world.
More about the exhibition
Curated by Josefin Lundahl, RELOVE is a testament to teamwork and imagination. Creativity Explored’s teaching artists scavenged at the Recology Transfer station on behalf of resident artists, looking for materials and tools specific to their interests and approaches to making. Then, in the studio, resident artists worked alongside teaching artists to realize their creative visions.
Samedi Djeimguero works on Become Like the Whole World at the Recology AIR studios
“Scavenging was like divination. I would talk with the artists about our projects, and I would always find the material to get us to the next steps. We needed pictures of food, I found cookbooks. We needed jewelry, I found a jewelry store. I felt like the dump wanted us to have what we needed.”
— Lacey Johnson, Teaching Artist
Featured resident artist Samedi Djeimguero presents a series of luscious, pop-colored three- and two-dimensional works, and a video created in collaboration with teaching artist Lacey Johnson, that imagine a hopeful world of abundance and connection, populated with friends and family.
Djeimguero renders the expressive figures in his city, named Become Like The Whole World, with energetic lines of paint and ink, the landscape dancing around them with radiant patterns and surfaces embedded with an array of intricate costume jewelry. The sculptural paintings wrap around oversized Styrofoam crystals and prisms, transforming them into a mountainous ecosystem of homes for his thriving community. Djeimguero carves into a few crystals to create windows, allowing audiences to peer into the bedazzled interiors of these homes, suggesting the value in the hidden interior lives we each lead.
Many of the titles for Djeimguero’s pieces (Become Like Honey, Become Like the Whole World, Become Like Life Golden) implicitly suggest an emergence from a place of isolation and hurt. Djeimguero recognizes the disconnect and barriers that have formed through the pandemic, lack of access, the distance of migration, or challenges in communicating, and utilizes his creative process to highlight the joy and power of collaboration and life with one another — a deeply held personal vision, as well as a fitting echo of the collaboration integral to the exhibition.
From left to right: Jesus Huezo, JD Green, and Ian Adams work on pieces with raw materials from Recology
“I like to work [at Recology] and I’m happy there. I like to work with Lacey – it makes me happy. I’m so happy to be working together like that. We work together and we eat lunch together. I am so happy to have her. And she is so happy for me.”
— Samedi Djeimguero, Featured Artist
An old paint roller screen painted by Taneya Lovelace
Creativity Explored artists refashioned San Francisco’s scraps in novel ways: some incorporated the found materials into their own idiosyncratic methods of art-making, while others allowed the materials themselves to guide their process. Daniel Green, who harbors an intense and playful fascination with American entertainment and popular culture, fully illustrated a treasure trove of old record sleeves; pattern-prone artist Ethel Revita discovered a new medium in jettisoned house paints. Julien Borromeo, influenced by Egyptian images, designed a cover for a sci-fi book, while Taneya Lovelace applied her signature layering process to old paint roller screens.
RELOVE shows what happens when artists push past tradition to share their vision of the world and expand perspectives on what can be. The transformation of these once-discarded objects is nothing less than magical, inspiring us all to cherish what we have and find meaning in the mundane.