Explore ‘The Future is a Verb’ – Where San Diego Artists Reshape Found Objects Into Something New

The future usually gets talked about like weather, something that arrives whether we are ready for it or not. The artists in ‘The Future is a Verb’ treat it as a material instead, something you can cut, weld, and reshape.

The show fills the second-level gallery at UC San Diego Park & Market with work built from found objects, salvage, and materials someone else had already given up on. Vanguard Culture’s ARTS LAB presents it, and Blanca Lucia Bergman put the show together.

Eleven Artists, Three Galleries, and a Project Called PEGBOARD

Bergman pulled work from across San Diego County. Neal Bociek, Annie Clafin, Natalie Gonzalez, Kara Greenwell, Joseph Alexander Henseler, Daniel Hicks, Elizabeth Juarez, Karah Lain, Cat Chiu Phillips, Scotti Taylor, and Stephen Williams all have pieces in the gallery.

Three galleries bring their own artists. Cycad Gallery represents Jess Philip Bergman, Francisco Eme, Karla Leopold, John Raymond Mireles, and Anna Zappoli.

Oolong Gallery brings Alida Cervantes and Christiana Updegraff. Quint Gallery brings PEGBOARD, a collaboration between Ethan Chan, Mark Quint, and Sarah Cook.

'Something Happening Here' by Kara Greenwell

Steel Seams, Left Visible on Purpose

Neal Bociek works in steel because of its contradictions, rigid but malleable, industrial but expressive. He cuts and welds salvaged parts into new relationships and leaves “the seams and imperfections visible as part of the work’s history.”

His piece in the show is called ‘Push and Pull.’ It is the whole exhibition in miniature. Nothing has to be sanded smooth to be worth keeping.

The Dragonfly, a Synth That Had to Be Invented

Robyn Kazinsky performs as CATWIZARD and plays an instrument they built themselves: the Dragonfly, a 3D-printed electronic wind synthesizer. It exists because the sound they wanted had no instrument to make it, so they built one out of what was lying around.

Kazinsky is Vanguard Culture’s 2026 Susan McAllister Swap Emerging Visionaries Fellowship recipient, and the live set opens the reception.

From a Live Set to a Walkthrough With the Curator

The reception moves in three parts. CATWIZARD plays first. Then Bergman and Vanguard Culture executive director Susanna Peredo Swap sit down with the artists and gallery representatives for a Q&A about transformation, resourcefulness, and beauty.

Bergman closes the night with a tour of the gallery, walking through how each piece was made and why it earned a spot on the wall.

Protopia, or Better in Small Steps

The show takes its framing from protopia, the idea that a better future shows up gradually through small intentional changes rather than one dramatic leap. Bergman says artists have “a remarkable ability to see possibilities in overlooked materials, objects, and spaces.”

That is the ask here. Walk out and look at your own block the way these artists look at a pile of scrap.