Jo Hanson: Unearthed

The Recology Artist in Residence (AIR) Program is pleased to present Jo Hanson: Unearthed, a retrospective celebrating the visionary work of Jo Hanson, an artist, environmental activist, educator, and founder of the Recology AIR Program. This exhibition brings together Hanson’s artworks and archival materials, many of which have remained unseen for decades, to illuminate her far-reaching impact at the intersections of art, ecology, and social practice.

Rooted in Northern California’s distinctive legacy of environmental awareness and artistic experimentation, Hanson’s practice bridges several pivotal art movements from the 1960s to the present. Her work resonates with Land Art, through its engagement with the urban landscape as both site and medium, and with natural systems, as well as with the Found Object and Discarded Materials movements, as she transformed waste into reflective, socially charged artworks. Hanson was a key figure in the rise of performance-based Eco-Art, ecofeminism, and Social Practice Art with her belief that intersectional environmental stewardship and everyday acts of care are important aesthetic and civic acts.

Unearthed honors Hanson’s pivotal role in establishing the Recology AIR Program, one of the earliest institutional models for sustainability driven art making. Hanson’s collaborative spirit further extended to cofound, alongside Estelle Akamine and Susan Leibovitz Steinman, the Women Eco Artists Dialogue (WEAD), a network amplifying the collective power of women artists to address environmental and social justice issues. Unearthed celebrates Jo Hanson’s conviction that art can emerge from what is cast aside, and that mindful, creative action, no matter how small, can spark collective, systemic change.

The exhibition at Recology (401 Tunnel Ave.) runs from March 13 to May 8.