Bioneers 2025 Conference

Bioneers 2025 Artists and Performers

For Bioneers’ 36th conference, we are excited for art to play a vital, celebratory, and transformational role at the conference. Check out this year’s contributing artists. 


Robert Dash

An award-winning author, photographer, and career science educator, Robert Dash features small subjects with large stories about climate and biodiversity. His work has been published by TIME, Geographical, Lenswork, and National Geographic. Dash’s images have appeared in galleries and juried shows in the US and overseas; his traveling exhibition and newest book are entitled Food Planet Future: The Art of Turning Food and Climate Perils Into Possibilities. Food Planet Future uses photographic arts and scanning electron micrographs to investigate regenerative agriculture and rewilding practices.

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Benny Ferdman

As a collector of materials and stories from our human, natural and cultural landscape, artist Benny Ferdman reinterprets images and tales to reclaim wonder in everyday life. His paintings, sculptures and installations are animated by a mix of folkloric and natural forms, ancient text, the past, the present, time and transformation. His art often draws on themes of heritage, spirituality, and the human connection to nature, interpreting these sources and ideas through contemporary art practices. Woven throughout is a great reverence for the natural world and an increasingly urgent message around collective ecological responsibility.

Benny Ferdman currently lives in Los Angeles and is Co-founder and Artistic Director of Creative Ways, an organization that creates public art, exhibitions, multi-media installations, interdisciplinary arts programming and educational curricula nationally and across the globe. www.creativeways.org. He is also Co-Founder/Director of Camp Wildcraft–an art and nature summer camp in Los Angeles whose mission is to “grow curious, creative, confident and caring kids who feel at home in nature.”

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Bushra Gill

Bushra Gill is an artist and curator who finds order within the chaos of everyday life through art. She was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and emigrated to Houston, Texas, with her family as a small child. Drawn to art from a young age, she graduated from Pratt Institute in 1994 with a BFA in sculpture. She has been awarded residencies at Pilchuck Glass School and Kala Art Institute.

Gill spent many years working as a museum educator at various galleries and museums including The Museum of Modern Art, The Drawing Center and The Rotunda Gallery, while also working as a studio assistant to various artists including Maya Lin, Ursula von Rydingsvard, and Maria Elena Gonzalez. Currently living and working in northern California, Gill also curates, drawing on her experience from a long teaching career to be a visual storyteller. She is a member of the California Society of Printmakers, the Northern California Women’s Caucus for Art and Asian American Women Artists Association.

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Lele Art Lab

Lele Art Lab, founded by designer and educator Alexa Simeone, is an art-based environmental organization empowering young explorers, makers, and doers to lead the charge for less waste and more ocean.

Through hands-on maker labs, Lele Art Lab transforms ocean waste into creative opportunities, where art is paired with science to spark innovation and inspire environmental action.

Youth engage in sustainable design challenges, using the 3 R’s (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) to develop solutions that minimize waste, promote systemic change, and foster greater inclusion.

The Sea Lab Project, the organization’s flagship initiative, empowers underserved teens from coastal South Florida communities to become environmental stewards. Through engaging workshops, maker labs, and immersive ocean exploration field trips, youth are equipped with the creative tools to advocate for ocean conservation. The 17-week design incubator culminates in a World Oceans Day exhibition. Proudly supported by the Rotary Club of Deerfield Beach and the City of Deerfield Beach.

Serving K-12 students in South Florida, Lele Art Lab has been featured by National Geographic, Chasing Corals, Surfrider Foundation, and the Monaco Ocean Protection Challenge, earning recognition for its commitment to amplifying diverse voices, environmental education, and youth-led conservation.

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Chiffon Lark

Chiffon Lark is of Mescalero/White Mountain Apache and Coahuiltecan descent. Her indigenous heritage inspires her to convey a deep sense of connection to other species. She is an Indigenous advocate for environmental sovereignty for all Native People and Wildlife. Chiffon has worked with both non-indigenous and native-led organizations throughout the US that are dedicated to cultural conservation and climate preservation.

She specializes in abstract realism using Alcohol Ink, which is a concentrated dye or pigment that is not soluble with water. Unlike traditional paint, the ink is diluted with an ethanol-based solution (commonly rubbing alcohol).

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Roberta Trentin and Robert Lopez

Rob Lopez is a conscious rap artist, mycology enthusiast, forager, and advocate for human and animal liberation. Rob’s first passion was rap music, which he started recording when he was 15. Over the years his music has evolved to reflect his awareness and dedication to addressing social issues. When he isn’t writing music, you can find Rob hiking, foraging, and cultivating.

Rob cares deeply about helping others and connecting people in the community and he channels his love for the world into the culinary mushrooms that he cultivates. Rob operates @DecolonizeHongos, a mycology lab for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms. Decolonize Hongos is a Mexican owned business that was started in 2020 in Richmond, CA.

With a focus on helping BIPOC communities understand the importance of growing and gathering our own food, Decolonize Hongos is plant based and ethical as they also focus on spreading the word of protecting life at all means to make sure they are doing our part by protecting earth and animals.

Roberta Trentin is a multidisciplinary artist who works in collaboration with the materials and the unknown outcomes. Her work explores overlooked stories of fungi, microorganisms, and plants in the more-than-human world. In her practice, that being paper-making with mushrooms, interactive/participatory bio-sonification installations, or bio-fabricating with mycelium, Roberta welcomes members of her species to consider the possibility of decentralizing the human perspective, and invites to shift the attention from the forward to the around us. At core of her work lies a recurring question; what does it mean to be mycelium? For Roberta, mycelium widens one’s perspective, it invites to look beneath and explore new intricate entanglements. A background in science and a love of the earth, her work results in an interweaving of macro/micro observations and deeply personal stories. Roberta is originally from Italy, she moved to the US in 2008 and splits her time between the forests of the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn.

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Taylor James Monét

Taylor James Monét is a multimedia artist that never limits herself when it comes to being creative. The artist’s style consist of mix of expressionism, symbolism, and surrealism. Born in Oakland, CA and growing up a with a chaotic environment, art was and still is a way for her to process the world. Taylor is always discovering new things about herself and finding new ways to express it. She also uses art to bring awareness to what’s going on around us and to question our behavior. Taylor James Monét encourages us all to question why things are the way they are and whether things should continue in the same way.

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Patricia Larenas On Paper

Patricia Larenas’ work has been exhibited in various venues around the San Francisco Bay Area. She values teaming with non profit and local governmental organizations to nurture connections to the land through art and education. Some example partners are: the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) and Canopy.

She is an exhibiting member of the Northern California Society of Botanical Artists and studied in the Filoli Botanical Art Certificate Program in Woodside, California; she received her B.A. degree in Studio Art from San Jose State University. During the 1990’s she was an exhibiting ceramic artist and a member of the Mountain View Potters studio.

Patricia was born in Chile, and has two lovely, grown children. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and a menagerie of trees.

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Veronica Ramirez

Veronica is first generation to Chilean/Mapuche ancestry, born on Ramaytush Territory (Redwood City, CA). Co-founder of PLACE (People Linking Art, Community & Ecology) on Ohlone Territory (Oakland, CA), an educational center and maker space since 2011, Veronica’s experience spans various domains, including organizational development, educational programming, placemaking projects, community partnerships, and neighbor relations. In 2021, she joined SNAG Mag/The Nest (Seventh Native American Generation), a Native owned arts and culture magazine, based in Northern California, Pomo Territory. As a co-director she co-created and designed the last 2 SNAG Magazine issues post covid with richly inspiring stories and curated art works from Native/Indigenous artists, including herself. Veronica is also a founding member of Golden Gate Cohousing since 2012. She contributes to the co-living project dedicated to diversity and affordable housing for change makers, a project of Shared Living Resource Center where she serves as a board member. Additionally, Veronica’s commitment to food and criminal justice issues is evident through her board membership with Planting Justice, an organization dedicated to addressing these concerns. In 2017 Veronica was recognized for her community work by the City Council of District 1 in Oakland, CA on Legacy of Cesar Chavez Day. As a sacred activist she has led public earth altar making rituals and workshops with community since 1998. Earth Altarscapes (formerly Earth Peace Mandala Project) is the body of work that most brings to life her passions for the natural world, art, and the sacred while also celebrating community. Veronica’s passion for community and restorative justice is exemplified by her role in the North Oakland Restorative Justice Council, tackling community violence through a restorative lens; this is where her mutual aid/advocacy volunteer work with unhoused neighbors of Oakland began and from which lasting relationships in these communities continue. Veronica’s curious nature inspires her toward her deep love of the natural world, human connection, and the transformative healing that comes from the co-creative spirit we each possess.

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Ernesto Sanchez

Ernesto Sanchez’s work is mixed media and multicultural, incorporating influences from his southern Californian, Mexican-American upbringing, his artistic studies in the U.S., Indonesia, Japan, and his time performing, teaching, and collaborating with artists throughout the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia.

In the early 70’s, while performing in a one ring Mexican circus in Mexico, he discovered his passion for masks, both for making and performing with them. In 1993 he received a fellowship from the Japan-US Friendship Commission which allowed him to live and study in Kyoto for one year. Japan, with its ancient cultural and artistic traditions, was the catalyst that caused him to shift his focus from stage performance to the visual and ceremonial arts. This is the passion that has informed his work for the past 30 years. Since returning to California in 1994, his work has concentrated on the link between art, spirituality, and the community. In 2006 he opened “Ernesto’s Studio” a workshop/gallery in downtown Pt Reyes Station. Open to the public, Ernesto’s Studio is an enchanting world of masks, angels, altars, and paintings. In all his work he strives to create pieces that act as portals for the spirit and vehicles for personal discovery.

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Sioduhi Studio

Patsy Craig is a multidisciplinary artist based in Cusco, Peru where she founded and operates her cultural project called AWA focusing on Indigeneity & ancestral knowledge, ecology, and decolonisation providing a unique access to cultural traditions that recognize and perpetuate sustainability and biodiversity as the means to ensure mutual flourishing. She received her BFA from RISD and her Master’s degree in Cultural Studies from University London in the UK. Patsy has been curating widely acclaimed installations within the Bioneers conference since 2019.

Sioduhi is an Indigenous Fashion designer from the Brazilian Amazon. Previous to recently completing his MBA in Fashion Business and Aesthetics at the School of Communication and Arts at the University of São Paulo in 2024 he graduated in Business Administration at Uninorte Manaus. In 2023 he was identified as “Fashion Futures Personality” by the C&A Institute, and in 2023 won an Innovation Award with ManioColor Technology, a dye made from the cassava plant. From 2021- 2023 he took part in “Brazil Eco Fashion Week” and in 2024 debuted as the only indigenous brand at “Casa de Criadores”.

AWA Galeria
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Sioduhi Studio
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Andie Thrams

Sierra Nevada-based visual artist Andie Thrams creates paintings and artist’s books that explore biophilia and solastalgia in wildland forests. Merging the lineages of illuminated manuscripts and natural history field journals with a contemporary art and science awareness, her paintings weave intricate detail, shape, color, and hand-lettered text to evoke forest ecosystem interconnectedness. Andie’s ForestSong project shares creative processes, contemporary wildfire and forest ecology, and actionable steps to foster environmental stewardship in wildfire-impacted communities. The project centers on community-created Forest Prayer Flags to deepen appreciation of and connection to forests, address environmental grief (solastalgia), and celebrate biophilia.

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Ruth Wallen

Ruth Wallen, is a multi-media artist and writer whose work is dedicated to encouraging dialogue around ecological and social justice. After working as an environmental scientist, she turned to art to pose questions beyond disciplinary boundaries, address values informing environmental policy, and contribute to the developing field of ecological art. Her interactive installations, nature walks, web sites, artist books, performative lectures, and writing have been widely distributed, published, and exhibited. Active in the border region, she was a member of the multinational artist collective Las Comadres and a Fulbright Lecturer at the Autonomous University of Baja California, Tijuana. Committed to student-centered learning, she served as chair and core faculty in the MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Goddard College for many years. For over a decade she has been bearing witness with trees dying because of urbanization, globalization, in the form of introduced species, and climate change in all its guises, including drought, bark beetles and fire. She is writing a book, Walking with Trees, about her experiences, as well as creating public opportunities to grieve and re-imagine the future.

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Women Eco Artists Dialog – WEAD

WEAD is a volunteer-run collective, a network of feminist eco­artists, educators, curators, and writers working toward the goal of a just and healthy world. Since 1995, we focus on women’s unique perspective in ecological and social justice art. WEAD maintains a website (weadartists.org) that serves as a virtual gallery of eco artists work, connects artists and curators with exhibition opportunities, and educates and enlightens through its WEAD Magazine presentations, classes and exhibitions.

Eco Art Matters class in the Laney College Art Department was started by Andree Thompson, (a WEAD Board Member), to create a forum for research on ecological and social justice issues. Every semester the students research an environmental issue and make art in response.

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Minoosh Zomorodinia

Minoosh Zomorodinia is an Iranian-born educator and interdisciplinary artist who makes visible the emotional and psychological reflections of her mind’s eye inspired by nature and her environment. She employs walking as a catalyst to reference the power of technology as a colonial structure while negotiating boundaries of land. Her strollings sometimes reimagines our relationships between nature, land, and technology, while addressing transformation of memories into actual physical space absurdly. Zomorodinia has received several awards, residences, and grants including the Kala Media Fellowship Award, Headlands Center for the Arts, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Djerassi Residency, Recology Artist Residency, the Alternative Exposure Award, and California Art Council Grants. She has exhibited locally and internationally at Asian Art Museum San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, Berkeley Art Center, Pori Art Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, ProARTS and many more. Her work has been featured in the SF Chronicle, Hyperallergic, SFWeekly, KQED and many other media outlets. She earned her MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute, and holds a Masters degree in Graphic Design and BA in Photography from Azad University in Tehran. She currently lives and works in the Bay Area.

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