April 19, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, CA–The Artist in Residence Program at Recology San Francisco will host an exhibition and reception for current artists-in-residence Kate Rhoades, Weston Teruya and student artist Cristina Velázquez on Friday, May 20, from 5-9pm and Saturday, May 21, from 1-3pm. Additional viewing hours will be held on Tuesday, May 24, from 5-7pm, with a gallery walk-through with the artists at 6:00pm. This exhibition will be the culmination of four months of work by the artists who have scavenged materials from the dump to make art and promote recycling and reuse.

 

Kate RhoadesKate Rhoades: Karen
Kate Rhoades uses humor and the absurd to talk about complex issues. Past work has lampooned the art market and skillfully distilled dense art theory into spot-on comical vignettes. For her Recology residency, Rhoades is making a video that takes the Jim Henson film Labyrinth as inspiration. Envisioning an origin story for the Junk Lady who lives in the labyrinth, Rhoades has created a life  history, as well as a name—Karen, for the character.

Karen’s story encompasses family loyalty, personal struggle, materialism, and the detrimental effects of obsession on relationships. Though these are heavy topics, the actors—muppet-esque puppets that Rhoades has crafted from scavenged materials including mattress foam, Christmas ornaments, mops and yarn—bring levity to the production.

Says Rhoades, “Through the use of fantasies and alternative realities I explore different roles, act out fears and anxieties, and in showing their absurdity I might diminish their power over me, and perhaps over the viewer.”

Rhoades holds an MFA from Mills College and a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. She has exhibited in the Bay Area at Root Division, Southern Exposure, di Rosa, the Berkeley Art Center, and the David Brower Center, and hosts the art podcast Congratulations Pine Tree.

Weston TeruyaWeston Teruya: The Space Left Behind
Working exclusively with paper, Weston Teruya builds sculptural installations that examine the social dynamics, textures, and histories of specific sites and communities. Describing his process Teruya says, “I am most drawn to objects and images that speak to the specificity of place and how issues of equity and justice manifest in the built environment.”

While at Recology, Teruya has been looking for discarded objects that relate to, or result from, a changing San Francisco. Moving boxes and real estate signs signaling displacement and a transitory population have been recreated by Teruya using scavenged office paper supplies.

Teruya has also constructed objects that serve as barriers, such as fences, walls, keys, and locks—objects that also reference the physical structures of “home”—to explore issues of access. Some longer, horizontal sculptures are balanced on tall, narrow stands, indicating precariousness and insecurity. The fact that all components of Teruya’s sculptures are made of paper further reinforces the feeling of fragility, and in turn, the tenuous nature of the Bay Area community.

Teruya has exhibited at the Mills College Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and the Headlands Center for the Arts, and is the recipient of a Montalvo Art Center Irvine Fellowship. He holds an MA in visual and critical studies and an MFA in painting and drawing from the California College of the Arts and is represented by Patricia Sweetow Gallery.

Cristina VelazquezCristina Velázquez: Enajenaciones
Student artist Cristina Velázquez has used the word enajenaciones to describe the materials she has been finding. The word can be translated as alienations or disposals, and can be used in reference to both people and objects.

Exploring this animate/inanimate connection, Velázquez has transformed cast-off fleece fabric remnants into playful, biomorphic sculptures as an act of reclamation. The random shapes of the fabric pieces help dictate her forms, which are sewn and stuffed and appear in a variety of sizes and color combinations. Velázquez describes her residency experience as provoking urgency in her artistic practice to transform the materials she has been finding, reaccept them, and return them to the world.

Velazquez is currently a student at the San Francisco Art Institute pursing a dual MA/MFA degree in the History and Theory of Contemporary Art, New Genres. She has exhibited at MACLA and Works Gallery in San Jose, and at SOMArts, Galleria de la Raza and Meridian Gallery in San Francisco.
When:

Reception-Friday, May 20, 5-9pm
Reception-Saturday, May 21, 1-3pm
Additional viewing hours-Tuesday, May 24, 5-7pm with gallery walk-through with artists at 6:00pm at 401 Tunnel Avenue
Where:

Art Studio, 503 Tunnel Avenue, and Environmental Learning Center, 401 Tunnel Avenue, San Francisco, CA

Admission is free and open to the public, all ages welcome, wheelchair accessible.

About the Recology Artist in Residence Program
The Artist in Residence Program at Recology San Francisco is a one-of-a-kind program established in 1990 to encourage the conservation of natural resources and instill a greater appreciation for the environment and art in children and adults. Artists work for four months in studio space on site, use materials recovered from the Public Disposal and Recycling Area, and speak to students and the general public. Over one-hundred professional Bay Area artists have completed residencies. Applications are accepted annually, June through August.