Upcycled Garden

Overview

Located on the campus of San Joaquin Delta College, the Horton Art Gallery presents the Upcycled Garden, an ever-growing installation and touring concept by Daniel “Attaboy” Seifert, on view from October 16 – December 12, 2025.

Meet the artist, Attaboy Seifert, at the opening reception, planned for October 16, 5–7pm.

Atta’s recent installation, the Upcycled Garden, is a sculptural diary of sorts of consumption. The project began at a converted mortuary turned gallery in Oakland, and in the past two years the project has toured to 10 locations including the City Museum in St. Louis, Brea Gallery, Brassworks Gallery, Meow Wolf, and it will spend a year at the Hunter Museum of American Art in 2026-27.

In addition to the exhibition at the Horton Art Gallery, Atta will work with a group of Delta College art students to create a student art garden section for the exhibition.

Each sculptural element found in the Upcycled Garden is locally sourced recycled cardboard and mostly house paint and spray paint remnants. While beautiful and organic on the outside, when many of the sculptures are flipped over, you can see a visual diary of consumption (gluten free pizza, Covid tests, lemonade bottles, light bulb and amazon boxes, etc.) that is used to create them.

Attaboy started making the garden sculptures when dealing with the pandemic lockdown, rising costs of living, and as therapy for post car crash PTSD and a neurological condition. There is little to no planning while making them, and the open-ended play of constructing them is soothing. Different groupings of the sculptures are being created all the time, and the installation continues to grow.

With a commitment to creating and curating surprising forms of visual art, Attaboy has forged a varied career, often fusing subversion with disconcerting whimsy. Atta’s works include sculptural paintings on levels of layered wood, which investigate themes of death, decomposition and rebirth. His work has been seen in books, magazines, galleries, museums, television and many designer stores. His influences include Alexander Calder, Maurice Nobel, Eyvinde Earle, Dr. Seuss, and the futurist Syd Mead.

In 2005 artists Annie Owens and Attaboy co-founded Hi-Fructose magazine, which has become a bestselling art magazine with a global reach. In 2009, in order to better define the scope of the magazine, New Contemporary Art was added to the masthead. Since, the term has been adopted by many galleries, museums and artists.

Hi-Fructose: The New Contemporary Art Magazine was honored with a ten year retrospective titled “Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose“, which premiered at the Virginia MOCA, and travelled to the Akron Museum of Art and the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, CA. The publication has spawned a popular series of hardcover books, elaborately designed box sets, curated shows, and a recent Hi-Fructose hardcover distributed by Abrams books focused on New Contemporary Fashion.

Atta has done numerous talks and presentations at art schools, companies, book stores, museums and galleries, including an Artist Talk at Delta College in 2024. Topics have included discussing his creative process, his former career as a toy designer, his children’s books, his partnership with Annie Owens, creating concepts from scratch and finding inspiration in unlikely places.

Dates and Times:

Monday – Thursday • 11:00am–5:30pm
Friday • 11:00am–1:00pm

Saturday: October 18, 11:00am-3:00pm