Viridian Artists is pleased to present the exhibit “Un-Trashed” featuring fine art made primarily from trash. The heart of this exhibit is the message of the three R's: Reduce/Reuse/Recycle and most importantly, Upcycle, as the artists in this exhibit have done. 10% of sales of the artworks in this exhibit will be given to an environmental organization fighting the evils of trash.

“Un-Trashed” attempts to say it straight as artists have long used trash as a medium, sometimes because of the beauty they see in such objects or other times because of limited funds. But the message in this exhibit is clear: we must realize that our environment is at stake if we continue to merely discard the packaging and broken or undesired objects in our possession. We must begin to un-trash, reuse, and upcycle all that we possibly can. The artists in this exhibit are showing us only one solution – to make art created primarily from debris. Some of the works present themselves through the mere use of these materials, others are more decisive in their message of the evils of trash if it is left untethered.

“Art from Detritus”, or art from waste, was conceived by artist/curator Vernita Nemec in 1994 in Portland, Oregon during the annual conference of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC). The first “Art from Detritus” exhibit was presented in the lobby of a recycled Sears Roebuck building, the corporate headquarters for municipal waste & recycling in Portland. Since then, the exhibit has re-occurred with funding from the Kauffman Foundation, the Puffin Foundation , and sponsorship by the NRC.

Past Detritus exhibitions have occurred in Pittsburgh, Kansas City MO, Phoenix AZ, Turners Falls MA and NYC. Since that time, the changing groups of artists in these environmentally conscious exhibits have opened an ongoing dialogue about the importance of protecting the environment through their art-making.