Reclaimed Room’s most ambitious show to date.  This exhibition will feature artworks from six eclectic artists, all of whom approach the theme from a different perspective.  Expect surprises from above and below as Miles Epstein, Clint Imboden, Bruce Barton, Tim Armstrong and Soumyaa Behrens vie for your attention to matters beneath the urban surface.

Opening Reception March 27th from 6-8pm. 701 Amador Street, SF 94124

Special Event: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition sponsored “Sewer Ride”  from Daly City BART to Reclaimed Room on Saturday May 10th.  Tour starts at noon and comes to a close at the exhibition near 3pm.  Whether you ride or just want to hop on at the end.  Join us for another reception with the artists May 10th at 3pm in honor of the re-imagined and highly popular sewer ride.

This year’s adventurous and moderately challenging tour will start at the Daly City BART station. We’ll climb east, up and over San Bruno Mountain and drop to the edge of San Francisco Bay. Turning north, we’ll sniff our way around the backside of Candlestick Park, investigating the squishy boundary between humans and H2O, with emphasis on the massive sewer mechanics below our feet. The tour ends just north of India Basin, at the Reclaimed Room, an exhibition space for environmental arts, crafts, and media. A project of Building Resources at 701 Amador Street.

12 miles, some climbing, some steep downhill, and a bit of dirt and gravel. Bring helmet, water, good attitude and a snack! Comfort riding in traffic and groups advised. Questions? contact miles@milesepstein.com

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sf-bicycle-coalition-rec-ride-the-sewer-ride-tickets-9912442382

ARTIST BIOS

TOM KABAT

Inspired by the wide variety of designs seen in antique bicycles, Tom explores the practical and whimsical form of the bicycle using found objects and old bike parts to make ride-able thought pieces.

 Riding 4,200 miles across the country with high school friends got me hooked on bicycles, bike commuting and bike touring vacations.  Thinking of bikes as rolling levers and as mobility assist devices frees up a creative view of how a bike can be designed and made.  With a background in environmental and mechanical engineering, I look at bicycle design by combining disparate ideas and pushing boundaries.  My pieces are crudely made from mostly dumpster rescued materials.  I hope to inspire viewers to start making their own fun bikes.

I share my designs and techniques at: woodenbikes.com

and on: instructables.com/woodenbikes

 

CLINT IMBODEN

I come to making art with the perspective of a therapist. Just as a good therapist can act as a catalyst for change in a client, good art should elicit a strong reaction in the audience, provoking them to explore the reasons why they’ve been affected.

 

I usually find my materials at local flea markets. I start with the artifacts of daily living, things that most people discard or overlook: battered globes, worn shoes, dilapidated tools.  I’m drawn to old materials because they foster purposeful imperfection in my art, an attribute that’s connected to their previous lives. I use them for their connotative, associative or narrative possibilities. My installation work is tactile and handmade; as an artist, I focus on process and on topical, issue-based content.

 

Viewing my artwork is not meant to be a passive experience; it involves reading, deciphering, taking the initiative to engage physically and psychically with text and objects.  I use materials that challenge my audience to consider multiple references in order to understand the full meaning of a piece. I want people to be caught up in the experience of my work, just as I am, in making it. My goal is to have them come away from an encounter with the work knowing something new about themselves.

MILES EPSTEIN

Born in 1960, I grew up reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. I also listen to The Pretenders, and remember the first time I heard Crissie Hynde sing “waste not, want not, pick it up…”

 

A passionate interest in our material world, and in particular things we jettison as a society has lead me to a studio practice in art and design based around trash, debris, salvage and surplus. For an artist like myself, this bonanza, this cornucopia of vomitus from our material society is both thrilling and unimaginably tragic, and does not bode well for our planet and our future.

 

I source my materials from three main sources…the street, scrap yards, and the flea market. Some of my work is functional, others not. All of it shares the joy of simple technique, basic materials, and the pleasures of repetitive craft.

SOUMYAA BEHRENS

Behrens is an award winning director, producer and curator of film and contemporary visual art.  Her work is socially driven, engages issues of the environment and the political landscape that shape identity and power structures within marginalized communities.  Behrens is a lecturer at San Francisco State University, San Francisco Art Institute and curator of the Reclaimed Room for Environmental Arts.  She is on the board of directors at Bona Fide Films, President of Bay Area Women in Film and Media and a member of SAG-AFTRA.  She holds  an MFA in Cinema from San Francisco State University.