From Urban Waste to Natural Wonder: Socially-Engaged Art in the Environment

sTo Len will speak about his interdisciplinary artwork that focuses on place-based collaborations with environmentally abused landscapes and co-creations with communities and government agencies. The cross-disciplinary nature of Len’s practice spans printmaking, video, sound, performance, installation, drawing, and social practice work, threaded together by a site-responsive process of making. Recent projects have included an interactive video installation at the Grand Canyon, a Trash Museum in Kyrgyzstan, and a community pirate radio show in New Mexico.

Len has done extensive work as an Artist in Residence embedded in diverse locations including the NY Department of Sanitation, Grand Canyon National Park, Mass MoCA, Queens Botanical Garden, Wave Hill Public Garden, AlexRenew Wastewater Treatment Facility, and Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. sTo Len is currently an inaugural NYSCA State of the Arts Fellow embedded in the NY State Office of Victim Services.

Len is currently based in Queens, NY, with 26 years of residence in NYC and familial roots in Vietnam and Virginia, often incorporating these bonds by connecting issues of their history, environment, and traditions.