Reniel Del Rosario

Reniel Del Rosario creates ceramics that playfully recreate or reimagine familiar objects. From cakes to cigarettes to burial jars, these hand-built objects are made in the tens to hundreds and are full of imprints and inconsistencies, then gathered and put into a huddled crowd or in socially interactive installations in public, mimicking consumer establishments. Within Del Rosario’s works there is consistently an exploration of value: cultural, monetary, and historical. What’s worth money and what is not? Which objects throughout history have been identified as having importance and which ones have been deemed useless? Value is toyed with, encouraging viewers to assess their own values around these objects.

Reniel Del Rosario holds a BA in Art Practice from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a 2019 recipient of the Center for Craft’s Windgate-Lamar fellowship, a 2022 SFMOMA Artists Soapbox Derby racer, and has been featured in writings such as ARTFORUM and Bon Appétit. His work has been exhibited internationally through traditional and alternative venues such as West Coast Craft, Meta Open Arts, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Catharine Clark Gallery, other places Art Fair, Load Na Dito, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Jane Lombard Gallery, and simply on the public sidewalk