October 8 - November 12, 2022
From Galleri Urbane:
“Galleri Urbane welcomes back Austin-based artist Tammie Rubin for her debut solo show with the gallery, I Pick up My
Life. She presents an exhibition surrounding Black Americans’ metaphysical, physical, and spiritual relocation. Following
her inclusion in the gallery’s 2020 winter group exhibition, Rubin brings together family images, coded symbols, and
historical maps to visually contextualize The Great Migration, referencing the first line of One-Way Ticket by Langston
Hughs in the show’s title.
Her conical porcelain sculptures from the Always & Forever (forever, ever) series, shown at Untitled Miami 2021, are
simple at first glance: caution cones, snow cone cups, and funnels. However, the blue and white stippled objects
reference hoods worn by groups such as the Catholic Brotherhood of the Nazarenes, Ku Klux Klan, cultural images of
wizards and witches, dunce caps, various African headdresses and Mardi Gras festival costumes. “It’s this idea of
codifying power,” she says of conical hoods and the capirote—both “foreboding and absurd.” Pulling pageantry used to
denote power and intelligence to ignominy, she transforms the function of ceramics in the contemporary art space by
placing migratory maps and visual data upon their surfaces.
Seemingly arbitrary geometric shapes within a mural are symbols said to be used in Underground Railroad quilts to
communicate messages to enslaved individuals. This recreation of Monkey Wrench, North Star, Shoofly, her recent 2022
public project in Austin, TX, include painted motifs which were used to call to gather people and prepare, show the
allyship found in a location, and with the North Star remind the people of the path to freedom.
Recalling her 2022 installation at Project Row Houses in Houston, TX, Harmony, Comfort, Convenience, Round 53: The
Curious Case of Critical Race…Theory?, Rubin fills a confined space with stake flags and lines a broad wall with collaged
prayer fans—typically found in churches of the south to commemorate lives. In this exhibition, she repeatedly urges the
viewer to acknowledge past and present systems, their implications, and mass movements in pursuit of freedom.
A collection of various media, Rubin’s components weave together a range of associations, intertwining history and
storytelling, redefining the use of an object and underscoring the magnitude of its being multifunctional. The inherited
symbolism in these diverse forms and implied meanings encourage a range of emotions. I Pick Up My Life is an
ethnographic experience of Black Americans and a migration story that spans centuries.
Tammie Rubin is an artist whose sculptural practice considers the intrinsic power of objects as signifiers, wishful
contraptions, and mythic relics. Rubin delves into power of objects with themes concerning mapping, Black migration,
magical thinking, longing, and identity. Rubin is the 2022 Tito’s Prize winner; her Bid Medium solo exhibition is spring
2023. Rubin has exhibited at Project Row Houses, Houston, TX., the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College, An-nandale-
on-Hudson, NY., George Washington Carver Museum, Austin, TX., Mulvane Art Museum, KS., Indianapolis Art Center,
Indianapolis, IN., The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, TX., Women & Their Work Gallery, Austin, TX. She’s
represented by Galleri Urbane, Dallas, TX., and C24 Gallery, New York, NY. She founded Black Mountain Project along
with fellow Austin-based, and is a member of ICOSA Collective. Born and raised in Chicago, Rubin lives in Austin, Texas
where she is an Associate Professor of Ceramics & Sculpture at St. Edward’s University.”
Reception: October 8, 2022 | 6–8 pm
2277 Monitor St.
Dallas, 75206 TX
(432) 386-0590
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