From trash to treasure: San Francisco artist turns garbage into masterpieces

By Itay Hod

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    SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) — Some artists turn paint into masterpieces. Others, work with a different palette: trash.

When people talk trash about Austen Zombres’ art, he doesn’t get offended, because technically they’re not wrong.

“A major rule is anything that would or will be thrown away,” he said.

Zombres is what’s known as a trash artist. Once a week, he scours San Francisco’s sidewalks, dumpsters and stores searching for what the rest of us throw away.

His journey into the world of garbage began during a tough time, when buying traditional art supplies was out of reach. But what started as a necessity became a passion and a mission.

Zombres’ Mission studio is equal parts art gallery and recycling center, where colorful cartons and boxes get a second chance at life.

His collages reimagine familiar objects — sneakers, burgers and, most recently, bananas. Each piece takes between 30 and 300 hours to complete and can sell for as much as $4,000

“One time I cut out about 1,500 sesame seeds by hand and the repetitiveness gave me some cramps,” he said.

It’s that almost obsessive attention to detail that caught art world’s eye, leading to an invitation from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to showcase his technique in a live workshop.

San Francisco’s Incline Gallery owner Christo Oropeza, who’s shown some of Zombres’ art in the past, said trash, or sustainable, art is gaining traction because of the message it carries.

“It’s about looking at things differently and looking at ourselves differently,” he said. “It’s creating a second life for things.”

For Zombres, it’s about turning the unwanted into the unexpected.

“It’s just something out of the box,” he said.

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