More than 50 artists have turned scraps from Bay Area landfills and clothing swaps into gallery-worthy work at the Petaluma Arts Center, where a sprawling new exhibition asks visitors to reconsider what actually counts as trash. The show, titled “It’s Not Trash: Reclaiming and Transforming,” fills both the center’s Main Gallery and North Gallery through October 24 with pieces ranging from assemblage sculpture to a textile installation made from waste gathered at clothing swaps and through a creative reuse store.
The exhibition was curated by Lisa Lightman, president of the Petaluma Arts Center board, who said it is meant to push viewers to examine their own relationship with waste, according to The Press Democrat. Lightman toured Recology Santa Rosa’s newer facility while developing the show, and the paper reports she sees art made from discarded material as both an opportunity and a form of activism — one that, in her words, can confront difficult truths without overwhelming an audience, and that turning trash into art amounts to a positive action step during an environmental crisis. The show is presented in partnership with the Recology San Francisco Artists in Residence program, Petaluma’s Reuse Alliance, and the Recology Artstart Student Hub.
A 36-Year-Old Program Rooted in a Sidewalk Sweep
The Recology San Francisco Artist in Residence program anchoring the Main Gallery traces back 36 years, according to the same Press Democrat account, to a program that gives participating artists studio space, a monthly stipend, and access to landfill materials for their work — though the show’s five invited artists face no strict requirement to work exclusively with discarded items. Environmental artist Jo Hanson founded the residency, according to the SFO Museum.
The Main Gallery in Petaluma showcases artists affiliated with that program or personally invited by Lightman, including Katie Murken, Asaki Oda, Bryan Keith Thomas, and Joanne Wang.
Local Students and a Fabric Mosaic Take the North Gallery
The North Gallery flips the focus to home turf, featuring a strictly local exhibition of work by area students alongside a community mosaic coordinated by the Reuse Alliance, per the Press Democrat’s reporting. That student showcase is connected to the Recology Artstart Student Hub, known as TRASH, which Recology Sonoma Marin leads, according to Recology…