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During Climate Week, artists from Brooklyn’s Genspace community biology lab exhibited renewable, biodegradable art materials — natural pigments, algae yarn, and alternative clays — at the three-day show ‘Source Material’ at Flux IV in Queens. The artists frame these materials not as direct substitutes for synthetic supplies but as a way to rethink how art is made.
Four artists from Sunset Park’s Genspace community biology lab exhibited renewable, biodegradable art materials as alternatives to synthetic art supplies in “Source Material: Genspace Biomaterials Studio BioArt Exhibit,” a three-day show at Flux IV in Queens held during Climate Week, according to Hyperallergic. The exhibited works centered on natural pigments, algae yarn, and alternative clays, and positioned the show as a response to a summer of heatwaves and natural disasters worsened by the climate emergency.
The exhibit, hosted in a community biology lab context in Brooklyn, presented work by artists who spent months developing materials from organic and locally sourced inputs. Among the featured works is Becca Rodriguez’s “Puddle Pigments” (2026), which uses mugwort, mulberry, and serviceberry pigments applied to paper alongside water samples, test tubes, and video — combining the finished artwork with displays of its raw material sources.
Another participating artist, Kaitlyn Gillums, showed vessels and wearables made from what the exhibit describes as compost clay, including bowls, bracelets, and a belt buckle. Hyperallergic’s coverage, photographed by Izzy DeSantis, documented Gillums holding one of the compost clay bowls.
The artists emphasized that these substitutions are not intended as simple one-to-one replacements for store-bought synthetic supplies. According to the report, natural materials can instead introduce new creative challenges and shift how artists relate to art objects and their processes.
Why Bioart Materials Matter Now
The exhibit arrives after a summer marked by extreme heat and natural disasters that scientists and advocates link to the climate emergency, a backdrop Hyperallergic cites as the motivation for the show. Conventional art supplies — synthetic pigments, polymer-based clays, and petroleum-derived materials — carry environmental costs in production and disposal, and the exhibiting artists argue that renewable, biodegradable alternatives can reduce that footprint.
The show also demonstrates a model of community-based scientific inquiry: rather than working in traditional studios, these artists developed their materials in a shared biology lab, pairing artistic practice with experimentation. That approach, the report suggests, roots art-making in local ecosystems and intergenerational or cross-community knowledge, including pigment traditions with symbolic meaning in Indigenous communities and throughout the Global South.
From Pre-Synthetic Pigments to Algae Yarn
Before the development of synthetic dyes and paint tubes in 19th-century Europe, artists sourced their colors from plants, animals, and minerals in their surroundings, Hyperalleric notes. Some natural colorants remain familiar today — the indigo plant, cochineal beetle, and turmeric root — but thousands of organic sources of color exist, many carrying symbolic and cultural weight, particularly in Indigenous artistic traditions.
Genspace, the community biology lab where the exhibiting artists work, has served as a site for bioart and citizen science in Brooklyn. The Queens exhibition at Flux IV extended that work to a public audience during Climate Week, an annual period of climate-focused programming.
“Such substitutions needn’t be one-to-one swaps; instead, natural materials can unlock new creative challenges and shift our relationships to art objects and processes at large.”
— Hyperallergic, exhibit report
What the Exhibit Leaves Open
The Hyperallergic feature presents the artists’ visions and working methods but does not claim the materials are ready to replace synthetic supplies at scale. Several questions remain unanswered in the coverage: the durability, lightfastness, and archival stability of pigments like mugwort and mulberry compared with synthetic paints; the consistency and structural strength of compost clay across uses; and whether algae yarn can be produced at quantities practical for most artists.
The report focuses on four artists at one community lab, and it is not yet clear whether these material practices will spread beyond bioart circles or influence commercial art supply manufacturing.
Growing a Sustainable Studio Practice
Genspace’s Biomaterials Studio continues to operate as a community lab where artists can experiment with living and renewable materials, and similar community biology labs elsewhere may adopt comparable programs. Readers interested in the techniques can look for future Genspace workshops and exhibitions, and broader coverage of bioart may track whether natural pigment and biodegradable material practices move from exhibition experiments toward teachable, replicable studio methods.
Key Questions
What was the ‘Source Material’ exhibit?
A three-day BioArt exhibition at Flux IV in Queens, held during Climate Week, featuring artists from Brooklyn’s Genspace community biology lab who work with natural pigments, algae yarn, and alternative clays.
Who are the featured artists?
The Hyperallergic feature highlights four Genspace artists, including Becca Rodriguez, who works with natural pigments such as mugwort, mulberry, and serviceberry, and Kaitlyn Gillums, who makes vessels and wearables from compost clay.
Are natural art materials direct replacements for synthetic supplies?
According to the report, no. The artists and Hyperallergic frame natural materials not as one-to-one swaps but as a way to introduce new creative challenges and change how artists relate to their materials and processes.
Why were natural pigments historically replaced by synthetic ones?
Synthetic dyes and portable paint tubes were developed in 19th-century Europe, offering consistency and convenience. Before that, artists sourced color from plants, animals, and minerals around them.
Can artists visit or work with Genspace?
Genspace is a community biology lab in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, that supports public participation in science and bioart. Details on current workshops and membership were not included in the coverage.
Source: rss
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