April 13, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Francisco, CA–The Artist in Residence Program at Recology San Francisco will host an exhibition and reception for current artist-in-residence Neil Mendoza, and CCA student artist Emily Budd on Friday, May 18, from 5-8pm and Saturday, May 19, from 1-3pm. Additional viewing hours will be held on Tuesday, May 22, from 5-7pm, with a gallery walk-through with the artists at 6pm. 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. Please note that Friday receptions now end at 8pm.
Neil Mendoza: Pretty Rubbish
Neil Mendoza brings a variety of common objects to life using scavenged motors, computers, and other e-waste in combination with his own custom-written software. Themes of absurdity, humor, and the surreal are explored in kinetic sculptures and installations that function with a seeming effortlessness that belies the technical skills required for their creation.
An early scavenging find, a basket containing a collection of rubber ducks, was the inspiration for an interactive sculpture that uses water to bridge the gap between aquaria of real and virtual plastic waterfowl. Further improbable works include a mirror that moves away from your gaze, a gentle jab at our egocentric times, and an umbrella that rains on the inside in a humorous expression of futility. To be installed in the back studio, a mechanical, musical living room is both a literal house party and a hallucinatory vision of what a “smart-home” from a retro future might be up to, if left to its own devices.
Mendoza received an MFA from UCLA and an MA from Oxford University. He has been an artist-in-residence at Autodesk in San Francisco and has shown work internationally, including at the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Barbican in London, ISEA exhibitions in Vancouver and Albuquerque, and Young Projects in Los Angeles. His London-based companies, Neil Mendoza Limited, and Is This Good?, have created digital artworks and installations for clients including Audi, Nokia, Ford, and Swatch. His work has received media coverage from news outlets including the BBC, CNET, This is Colossal and Wired Magazine.
Emily Budd: Artifictions
Emily Budd continues her practice of working with contemporary trash to make objects suggestive of artifacts, gems, or geological forms. Describing her work as “future archaeology,” Budd imagines how our 21st century discards will manifest as a record of our times.
Using found objects as molds, Budd has cast layers of broken glass, mirror, paint, foam, sealants, and other found materials to create striated hemispheric forms that appear like distant planets or newly discovered minerals. In addition to casting, she has melted and dripped materials, creating small suspended amalgamations. Budd has worked with many items from the Household Hazardous Waste Facility including paint, caulk, and epoxy. While her sculptures are alluring with rich colors and sparkling forms, her use of these materials speaks to the chemicals and toxins that pervade our contemporary life that will leave their own impact on future generations.
Budd will receive an MFA from the California College of the Arts in May, and holds a BFA from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She is a recipient of a Cadogan Scholarship, an Arts Council of Indianapolis Emerging Artist Fellowship, and an Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artists Program Project Grant. She has been an artist-in-residence at Lacawac Sanctuary and Biological Field Station in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania, and at the Vermont Studio Center. She has exhibited locally at SOMArts Cultural Center, and Minnesota Street Project, and in venues in Indiana, Michigan, and Kentucky.
When:
Reception- Friday, May 18, 2018, 5-8pm
Reception- Saturday, May 19, 2018, 1-3pm
Additional viewing hours-
Tuesday, May 22, 2018, 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 was 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 Reuse and Recycling Area, and speak to students and the general public. Over 160 Bay Area artists have completed residencies. Applications are accepted annually, June through August.