Recycled

A category that encompasses the use of garbage, discarded materials, and thrown-away objects in art. As the saying goes, one person’s trash is another’s treasure; waste matter can be recycled as raw material for creating new forms, as in Vik Muniz’s photographs of intricate recreations of iconic paintings made from trash, and in John Chamberlain’s sculptures composed of crumpled car parts. Garbage can also find new life when imported as found objects in sculptural compositions, as in the assemblage works of Lonnie Holley.