San José Museum of Art
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Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Two gridded panels arranged side by side, forming a paired, geometric composition with a structured, map-like layout.

    Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Installation photo of Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot on view April 10–October 18, 2026 at the San José Museum of Art. Photo by Glen Cheriton.

  • Three sharply angled steps are made of what looks like cracking adobe. Bits of straw can be seen sticking out.

    Christine Howard Sandoval, Pile (detail), 2026. Blackened steel, California coastal soil, clay, sand, cotton T-shirt, and casters. Three stands: 28 x 34 x 5 1/2 inches, 29 1/2 x 47 x 5 1/2 inches, and 31 x 59 1/8 x 5 1/2 inches. Image courtesy of the artist.

  • Christine Howard Sandoval Plot, 2025. Blackened steel, California coastal soil, clay, sand, graphite, paper, MDF, and casters. Four stands: 22 x 25 x 48 inches, 23 x 24 x 48 inches, 18 x 24 x 48 inches, and 16 x 26 x 48 inches; and loose adobe form: 6 x 36 x 6 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

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    Working with land-based materials, Christine Howard Sandoval excavates the knowledge systems and histories that lie dormant in archives, architecture, and the land itself. Move the Plot debuts Howard Sandoval’s newest body of work, a study of the layered histories present in Bay Area and Central Valley wetlands. With adobe forms, dyes made from local medicinal plants, and modular steel structures, it puts archival traces of Indigenous resistance and knowledge in tension with the modern engineering technologies that continue to transform California’s marshes.  

    Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot brings the artist’s practice home to San José, where she grew up. 

    Exhibition Reading List

    Compiled by Cassandra Ponce, Hillview Branch Library. 

    Reserve your book by clicking on the format links to pick up a copy to borrow. A selection of these books is available for reference in the exhibition's Reading Area.

    Press

    Why is everyone obsessed with bogs?, The New York Times Style Magazine
    May 8, 2026

    Support

    Christine Howard Sandoval: Move the Plot is made possible by the SJMA Exhibitions Fund, with major support from Brook Hartzell and Tad Freese, and generous support from Peter S. Cross, in memory of Melanie Cross.

    Operations and programs at the San José Museum of Art are made possible by principal support from SJMA’s Board of Trustees, a Cultural Affairs Grant from the City of San José, the Lipman Family Foundation, and the Skyline Foundation; by lead support from the Adobe Foundation, Toby and Barry Fernald, Tad Freese and Brook Hartzell, the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation, Tammy and Tom Kiely, Wanda M. Kownacki, Yvonne and Mike Nevens, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the SJMA Director's Council and Council of 100; and with significant endowment support from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation and the San José Museum of Art Endowment Fund established by the Knight Foundation at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

     

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