Concoid Series-One, reclaimed jatoba chair parts, granite and steel, by Jeff Soderbergh, through Feb. 7 at St. George’s School in Middletown.

With reports of melting icecaps and other forms of ecological mayhem on the rise, it’s no surprise that many artists have decided to “go green.” They make sculptures using recycled materials, find less harmful replacements for their old thinners and solvents and share information on non-toxic art supplies. Some hardcore types even home-brew their own organic paints and inks.

Still, it’s hard to imagine a more eco-friendly artist than Jeff Soderbergh, a Middletown sculptor and furniture-maker whose work is the focus a one-person exhibit at St. George’s School’s Hunter Gallery. For starters, there’s the sheer scale of Soderbergh’s recycling efforts.

Rather than simply rounding up a few stray odds and ends, Soderbergh regularly travels around the Northeast, buying up van-loads of vintage furniture, soon-to-be-demolished architectural details and even heavy-duty structural elements such as beams, windows and flooring. He then turns these cast-off materials into elegantly contemporary pieces of furniture and sculpture.

A good example is Grande Lounge, one of about a dozen striking yet fully functional furniture works in the Hunter Gallery show. A kind of giant “found wood” assemblage, Grande Lounge takes its name from its central element — an arc-shaped wooden plank that once formed part of the sound box for a baby grand piano. Turned on its side and cut into two sections, this gracefully curved slab now forms the base, seat and back of a sleekly contemporary chaise lounge.

For added support, another recycled element — a sturdy walnut chair arm — sits directly beneath the seat area and provides an extra measure of stability. A pair of plush velvet cushions rounds out the ensemble and constitutes the lounge’s only 21st-century addition.

Another furniture piece, Number 14, is equally ingenious. It’s a lightweight wooden sideboard that Soderbergh constructed using pine boards reclaimed from an 19th-century house in Newport. The old boards, several of which retain traces of their original paint, give the piece a wonderfully weathered look — like something out of a Colonial-era inn or tavern. At the same time, the cabinet’s clean lines and sleek wrought-iron legs and cross-braces are clearly contemporary.

For each piece, Soderbergh also includes extensive documentary information identifying the various elements by age, function and point of origin. Thus we learn that the curved plank in Grande Lounge was once part of a turn-of-the-century baby grand piano produced by the Kimball Piano Company of Jasper, Indiana. The antique boards in Number 14, meanwhile, came from the Corne House — so-called because it was once the home of the noted Colonial-era painter Michel Corne.

The result is more than a random history lesson. By reusing parts of old chairs, tables and even entire houses, Soderbergh is practicing recycling on a basic, physical level. But by providing a biography of sorts for each individual element, he’s doing something more — teaching us about the past even as he transforms something else’s junk into chic contemporary furniture.

And that’s recycling of a rare and exalted sort.

Of course, you don’t have to be a history buff (or even a devoted recycler) to enjoy Soderbergh’s work. A funky-playful wine rack known as Lil Wineboy manages to make a statement even before you find out that its parts list, including a pair of Colonial-era chair legs and a set of 19th-century Shaker door hinges, covers more than 400 years of American history. A matching pair of Temple Benches, meanwhile, conveys an air of Zen-like calm, even if you don’t know that the wood come from an ancient oak beam recovered from one of the oldest houses in Little Compton.

(By the way, none of the materials used in Soderbergh’s sculptures and furniture pieces are obtained by nefarious means. All are sourced from legitimate owners and dealers.)

Though not quite as strong as his furniture, Soderbergh’s sculptural works employ many of the same methods and materials. A sleek, column-shaped sculpture called Orion, for example, includes parts of a 19th-century walnut desk, an old tulipwood molding from Belcourt Castle and strips of copper flashing from Ochre Court. Perched on a contemporary soapstone base, Orion manages to look both old and new — Thomas Chippendale meets Constantin Brancusi.

Another highlight is Concoid One, an arch-shaped sculpture that manages to look at once elegant and slightly threatening. The work, which also recalls the work of modernist masters such as Brancusi and David Smith, is made from reclaimed jatoba, a tropical hardwood widely used for furniture and flooring.

“Jeff Soderbergh: Furniture and Sculpture” runs through Feb. 7 at the Hunter Gallery, the Drury and Grosvenor Center for the Arts, St. George’s School, 372 Purgatory Rd., Middletown. Hours: Mon.-Sat. 9-4. Contact: (401) 842-6679 or www.stgeorges.edu.

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