In Queens: Materials For The Arts Artist In Residence: “The Accidental Archive” By Sto Len

Queens, NY – Materials for the Arts (MFTA) presents “The Accidental Archive,” a solo exhibition featuring recent work by MFTA Artist-in-Residence sTo Len. As MFTA’s resident artist, Len has had unlimited access to MFTA’s warehouse of donated supplies, where he’s collected and remixed outdated media and transformed the MFTA Gallery into a relic of times past: a space reminiscent of a video store replete with archival materials that detail both the personal and commercial marginalia of our lives. Celebrating the stories embedded within objects, his works unlock the ability of media to transport viewers through time, much like watching a film from childhood or the physicality of holding a landline telephone triggering a forgotten memory. “The Accidental Archive” activates lost media, recontextualizing our own intertwined stories in the process.

“In the ten years of my tenure at Materials for the Arts, I have not seen an artist activate the audio and video section of our warehouse in the way that sTo Len has,” shared MFTA Executive Director Tara Sansone. “Every resident artist that walks through our doors range widely in creative practice and specialty, but what unifies them is an appreciation for materiality and commitment to sustainability. Some artists paint; others sew; sTo Len transforms audio/video materials, bridging the gap between the past and the present.”

“When I first came to Materials for the Arts, I thought, ‘I’ll let fate guide the materials to me,’” shared MFTA Artist-in-Residence sTo Len. “I think there’s something interesting about this accidental archive at MFTA and I think that it’s been amazing to see how it’s all being repurposed and how I can repurpose the stories that are in these objects as well.”

As a part of their residency, MFTA Artists-in-Residence have access to MFTA’s 35,000-square-foot warehouse of materials to choose from, as well as an entire studio space to develop their work. For MFTA Artist-in-Residence sTo Len, the physical media that has come through the warehouse during his residency has taken center stage. Taking the media he’s found and collaging it all together, Len splices home videos of vacations and weddings with Hollywood films, while prints are made from undeveloped rolls of used film found in donated cameras. But this isn’t his first exposure to archiving and digitizing media. As the 2021-23 Public-Artist-in-Residence (PAIR) for the Department of Sanitation through the Department of Cultural Affairs’  #PAIRnyc program, Len dedicated his residency to creating the Office of In Visibility (OOIV), a project that bore witness to the unseen labor of DSNY and its extensive role in New Yorkers’ lives. What started through dusting off archived boxes and uncovering old films and prints, OOIV ultimately allowed Len to “collaborate with the history of the [sanitation] department,” as he puts it.

MFTA will celebrate the opening of “The Accidental Archive” with a free public event on Thursday, September 24, 2026, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. “The Accidental Archive” will be on view at Materials for the Arts Gallery (located within the MFTA warehouse at 33-00 Northern Boulevard, Long Island City, Queens 11101) through January 13, 2026, welcoming visitors Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission to this exhibition is free and open to the public.

For over a decade, MFTA’s Artist-in-Residence program has supported artists who incorporate reuse into their creative practice, offering them free studio space, a stipend, and access to the warehouse’s vast collection of donated materials. These resources have fueled New York City’s arts community since MFTA was founded in 1978. Each MFTA artist residency culminates in a solo exhibition at the MFTA Gallery, which inspires thousands of educators, students, artists, nonprofits, and social service organizations. Visitors are encouraged to explore the creative potential of nontraditional materials and discover how these objects can transform into art.

sTo Len is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has centered on ecological place-based collaborations with abused landscapes and co-creations with communities and municipal agencies. The cross-disciplinary nature of Len’s practice spans printmaking, video, sound, performance, installation, drawing, and social practice work, threaded together by a site-responsive process of making. Len is currently based in Queens, NY, with over two decades of residence in NY and familial roots in Vietnam and Virginia, often incorporating these bonds by connecting issues of their history, environment, and traditions.

Len has completed residencies across several institutions, including the Department of Sanitation, Grand Canyon National Park, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Queens Botanical Garden, Wave Hill Public Garden, AlexRenew Wastewater Treatment Facility, and Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island. sTo Len is currently an inaugural NYSCA State of the Arts Fellow embedded in the Office of Victim Services.

About Materials for the Arts (MFTA)
A program of the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, with support from the Department of Education and Friends of Materials for the Arts, MFTA is NYC’s largest reuse center supporting nonprofits with arts programming, public schools, and City agencies. MFTA collects millions of pounds of supplies each year which it provides, free of charge, to its member organizations. In addition to providing materials, MFTA has the MFTA Education Center, Gallery, Artist-in-Residence and Designer-in-Residence programs, and Third Thursday public programming, which are supported by Friends of Materials for the Arts. Learn more at nyc.gov/mfta.