Sam Heydt is an American social practice and recycled media artist whose work spans film, video, installation, photography, sculpture, sound, and text. Esteemed as a pioneer of the recycled media movement, she reinvents materials beyond their conventional use.

Heydt's practice is rooted in social advocacy and environmentalism, giving voice to the veiled, forgotten, and silenced. By juxtaposing imagery of destruction with representations of the American Dream, she confronts the disillusionment of our era with the ecological and existential crises it has wrought. Her shift from photography to collage and direct animation emerged from a period of immobility following a motorcycle accident in Iceland — a turning point that deepened her engagement with layered, recycled media.

Heydt holds degrees from Parsons School of Design (Magna Cum Laude) and Eugene Lang College, with studies at Cooper Union, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and La Sorbonne. She founded Jane Street Studio, LLC in 2012 and the gallery KITSCH in 2020. A published author and producer, her work has been exhibited at the State Hermitage Museum, the Smithsonian, and in galleries, art fairs, and film festivals worldwide. She has received accolades including the Aesthetica Art Prize (2014) and the Contemporaries Foundation Award (2012).