Austin · Artist Spotlight
Tammie Rubin Sculpts Belief Out of Porcelain
The Austin sculptor and St. Edward's professor casts pigmented-porcelain forms around ritual, migration, and magical thinking — a 2022 Tito's Prize winner with a national exhibition record.
'Always & Forever (ever, ever) No. 9' by Tammie Rubin — see more via Galleri Urbane
Tammie Rubin makes objects that look like they should have a use, then quietly takes the use away — leaving you alone with their meaning. The Austin sculptor casts and builds forms in pigmented porcelain, repeating cones, funnels, and domestic shapes until they read less like things and more like relics. "Separating objects from their original function," she says, "I contemplate ideas of authenticity and inherited symbolism." It's ceramics as a way of thinking about belief.
At a Glance
- Based in
- Austin, Texas
- Medium
- Porcelain sculpture & installation
- Themes
- Ritual, migration, identity
- Honor
- 2022 Tito's Prize
- Teaches at
- St. Edward's University
From Chicago to a national practice
Born and raised in Chicago, Rubin earned a BFA in Ceramics and Art History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MFA in Ceramics from the University of Washington in Seattle before building her practice in Austin. She is an Associate Professor of Ceramics and Sculpture at St. Edward's University, and a member of Austin's ICOSA Collective — roles that put her at the center of the city's contemporary-craft and sculpture community while she shows nationally.
Ritual, migration, and magical thinking
Rubin's work moves through ritual, domestic and liturgical objects, mapping, migration, longing, and identity — and, threaded through all of it, what she calls magical thinking. "There's so much magical thinking in objects that we have within our lives," she has said, "whether they be wishful objects or religious objects." Her representing gallery frames the work around power, mapping, and Black migration; the porcelain forms become vessels for memory and belief as much as for material.
There's so much magical thinking in objects that we have within our lives.
A Tito's Prize and a process that never closes
In 2022, Rubin won the Tito's Prize — a $15,000 award and a solo exhibition at Austin's Big Medium gallery, which opened in 2023. Her work has been shown at Project Row Houses in Houston, the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, Austin's George Washington Carver Museum, and Women & Their Work, among others. For all that recognition, she still talks about the medium with a student's humility: "Ceramics is such a process-based medium, and it has a long history. I constantly feel like, throughout my life, there will always be more things to learn about it."
Why we're watching her
Rubin is one of Austin's most nationally significant sculptors — a Tito's Prize winner with museum-level exhibitions — who also teaches and builds community here. Porcelain work this conceptually ambitious, and this rooted in Black American experience, is rare in any city.
Where to see her work
Her portfolio lives at tammierubin.com, and she posts on Instagram at @tammierrubin. Her work is represented by Galleri Urbane (Dallas) and shown locally through Big Medium and the ICOSA Collective — the best contacts for available work and current exhibitions.
About this spotlight: an independent, unpaid feature, written because we admire the work — drawn from public sources, including the artist's own statement, her representing gallery, and an Austin Chronicle profile. All artwork and images are the artist's; see the work in full via the links above.
Questions, answered
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Where to find Tammie Rubin
Love Tammie's work? Here's everywhere to see more, follow along, and support Tammie directly. Give a follow, share the work, and — if a piece speaks to you — buy from the artist.
Tammie was chosen for an Austin Gallery spotlight simply because we admire the work — a free, unpaid feature with nothing asked in return. We believe a gallery's real job is to help people find work worth loving. If you make art in Austin, we'd be honored to celebrate yours too —tell us about your work.
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