“My artwork contemplates narratives of Black American citizenry, migration, autonomy, longing, and faith. By weaving together familial and historical narratives, mapping data, and magical thinking, my installations evoke ritual moments of physical, metaphysical, and spiritual escape.”
Tammie Rubin is a ceramic sculptor and installation artist whose practice considers the intrinsic power of objects and coded symbols as signifiers, wishful contraptions, and mythic relics. Rubin’s artwork delves into narratives of Black American citizenry, migration, autonomy, longing, and faith. By weaving together familial and historical narratives, mapping data, and magical thinking, Rubin’s installations evoke ritual moments of physical, metaphysical, and spiritual escape. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Washington in Seattle and a dual BFA in Ceramics and Art History from the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign.
Rubin exhibits widely. Selections include Project Row Houses, Houston; the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College; Christian–Green Gallery at the Art Galleries at Black Studies, the University of Texas at Austin; Mulvane Art Museum, KS; the Indianapolis Art Center; the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft; Women & Their Work Gallery, Austin; Ruiz–Healy Art, San Antonio, TX; and Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA. Rubin maintains affiliations with grayDUCK Gallery in Austin and Rivalry Projects in Buffalo, NY. She is represented by C24 Gallery, New York, and Galleri Urbane, Dallas. Rubin is the 2022 Tito’s Prize awardee.
Rubin’s artwork has received reviews in publications such as Artforum, Art in America, The Brooklyn Rail, Glasstire, Austin American–Statesman, The Austin Chronicle, Sightlines, fields, Conflict of Interest, Ceramics: Art & Perception, and Ceramics Monthly Northwest. Born and raised in Chicago, Rubin lives in Austin, where she is Associate Professor of Art at St. Edward’s University.