Tim Tate
I see myself as a time traveler. I slide easily between many centuries, from early Greek and Roman times to the essence of the 21st century. I am unfettered by the restrictions of time and space.
Blending a traditional craft with new media technology gives me the framework in which I fit my artistic narrative. Contemporary, yet with the aesthetic of Victorian techno-fetishism. Revelation —, and in some cases self-revelation, is the underlying theme behind my endless mirrors, my obelisks, my videos.
But the important revelations here are in the viewer’s response to my hybrid art form and its conceptual nature. They are sent on a journey through time, free to examine from a distance as an other worldly invisible observer. It examines the relationship between art and endless mirrors to time travel and how memory works, and how it fades.
The frame is the portal to the past, to dreaming and imagination, while the viewer’s feet are still firmly planted on the floor. Nothing is random, all elements are thought out.
To me, these works are phylacteries of sorts, the transparent reliquaries in which bits of saints’ bones or hair — relics — are displayed. In many cultures and religions, relics are believed to have healing powers. My relics are formally enshrined, encapsulating experiences like cultural specimens. And perhaps, to the contemporary soul, they are no less reliquaries than those containing the bones of a saint.
With technology rapidly changing the way we perceive art, the current day contemporary landscape closely mirrors Victorian times in the arts. We enter the 4th dimension here, at this art piece. We marvel at and invent bridges between past and present in an effort to define our time and make sense of this highly transitory moment in artistic history.
Tim Tate is co-founder of the Washington Glass School located in Mt. Rainier MD. He has shown nationally and beyond since the 1990’s, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, SOFA New York and Chicago, Art Basel Scope in Switzerland, the Art Miami at Art Basel-Miami, the Luce Foundation Center for American Art at the Smithsonian, the Renwick Gallery and commercial galleries from Washington, DC to London and Berlin.
His awards include “Rising Star of the 21st Century” from the Museum of American Glass, the Virginia Groot Foundation Award for Sculpture, three Artists Fellowship awards from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Mayor’s Art Award. He also was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in Sunderland, England in 2012. His work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery, the Mint Museum, the Fuller Museum, the Katzen Art Center of American University, the Milwaukee Art Museum and Vanderbilt University. He has just finished a solo video show at the Taubman Museum in Roanoke, Va. and will have a large scale video installation at the Katzen Center at American University in 2013. In 2019 Tate was an invited artist to Glasstress in Venice, where he showed with Ai Wei Wei during the Venice Beinnale.
Artist Statement:
I see myself as a time traveler. I slide easily between many centuries, from early Greek and Roman times to the essence of the 21st century. I am unfettered by the restrictions of time and space.
Blending a traditional craft with new media technology gives me the framework in which I fit my artistic narrative. Contemporary, yet with the aesthetic of Victorian techno-fetishism. Revelation —, and in some cases self-revelation, is the underlying theme behind my endless mirrors, my obelisks, my videos.
But the important revelations here are in the viewer’s response to my hybrid art form and its conceptual nature. They are sent on a journey through time, free to examine from a distance as an other worldly invisible observer. It examines the relationship between art and endless mirrors to time travel and how memory works, and how it fades.
The frame is the portal to the past, to dreaming and imagination, while the viewer’s feet are still firmly planted on the floor. Nothing is random, all elements are thought out.
To me, these works are phylacteries of sorts, the transparent reliquaries in which bits of saints’ bones or hair — relics — are displayed. In many cultures and religions, relics are believed to have healing powers. My relics are formally enshrined, encapsulating experiences like cultural specimens. And perhaps, to the contemporary soul, they are no less reliquaries than those containing the bones of a saint.
With technology rapidly changing the way we perceive art, the current day contemporary landscape closely mirrors Victorian times in the arts. We enter the 4th dimension here, at this art piece. We marvel at and invent bridges between past and present in an effort to define our time and make sense of this highly transitory moment in artistic history.
Library Of Congress – Historic Glass Doors
Safeway – Large scale architectural glass wall, Bethesda, Md.
Vanderbilt University – Glass Wall in Nursing Station, Memphis, Tn.
Prince Georges County Courthouse, Cuppola Project, Upper Marlboro, Md.
Food And Friends Donor Wall – Washington, DC
District Government Project – Wilson Building Public Art
Liberty Park at Liberty Center, Outdoor Sculpture Commission, Arlington, VA
The Adele, Outdoor Sculpture Commission Silver Spring, MD (under construction)
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Ariel Rios Building Courtyard, Outdoor Sculpture Commission,
Washington, DC
National Institute of Health (NIH) Sculpture Commission, Hatfield Clinic, Bethesda, MD
Upper Marlboro Courthouse, Sculpture Commission, Prince Georges County, MD
American Physical Society / Baltimore Science Center, Sculpture Commission, Baltimore, MD
The Residences of Rosedale, Outdoor Sculpture Commission, Bethesda, MD
Holy Cross Hospital, Sculpture for Oncology Ward, Silver Spring, MD
The Carmen Group, Sculpture Commission, Washington, DC
Winner, International Competition, New Orleans AIDS Monument, New Orleans, LA
2019 Solo show, Persistence of Visions, Ft. Wayne Museum
2019 Glasstress, in Venice during Venice Beinnale with Ai Wei Wei, Berengo Studios
2019 Habatat Invitational show, Detroit, Mi.
2018 Context Art Fair in Miami during Art Basel with Momentum Gallery, Asheville, NC
2018 Scope, Miami Fl. During ArtBasel week with Habatat Gallery
2018 SOFA Chicago with Habatat Gallery
2018 Into Action!, Los Angeles, into-action.us
2017 Form Art Fair in Miami during ArtBasel with Habatat Gallery
2017 Scope Miami, WGS Contemporay
2017 J Willott Gallery, Palm Desert, Cal.
2017 London Contemporary Art Gallery, London
2017 Affordable Art Fair / Hong Kong with Spin Gallery
2017 J Willott Gallery, Palm Dessert, Ca.
2017 Art Boca Raton with Habatat Gallery
2016 Scope Miami with Alida Anderson Projects
2016 Art Palm Springs with Habatat Gallery
2016 Flint Institute Of Art, “Opulent Surveillancence”, Flint, Mi. Solo show
2016 Art Palm Beach with Habatat Gallery
2015 Scope Miami with Habatat Gallery
2015 SOFA Chicago with Habatat Gallery
2015 Wheaton Glass Weekend, Habatat Gallery
2015 Collective, New York, Wexler Gallery
2015 Art Palm Beach, Habatat Gallery
2014 SOFA Chicago, Habatat Gallery
2014 Art Aspen, Habatat Gallery, Royal Oak, Mi.
2014 Art Mkt San Francisco, Seager Gray Gallery, San Rafeal, Ca.
2014 Art Hamptons, Habatat Gallery
2014 Art Wynwood, Alida Anderson Projects
2014 Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Habatat Gallery
2013 Context Art Fair during Art Basel Miami with Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, Ca.
2013 Houston Fine Art Fair, Habatat Gallery, Houston, Tx.
2013 Piazzo Bembo show during Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2013 Katzen Art Center, American University Museum, Video solo show, “Sleep Walker”, Washington, DC
2013 Habatat Solo Show, “Visions Of Futures Past”, Royal Oak, MI.
2012 Orlando Art Museum, 50 Years Of Glass, Orlando, Fla.
2012 Mesa Art Center, Decidedly Digital, Tempe, Ar.
2012 Arkansas Art Center, Digital Dialogs, Little Rock, Ak.
2012 Blue Spiral Gallery, Glass Secessionism, Asheville, NC
2012 St. Petersburg Museum Of Art, St. Petersburg, Florida
2012 Affordable Art Fair, Creative Cohesion, London, England
2012 SOFA New York with Jane Sauer Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2012 Art Palm Beach with Jane Sauer Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2011 Art Miami at ArtBasel Miami with Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago, I’ll
2011 SOFA Chicago with Jane Sauer Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2011 La Luz de Jesus 25th Anniversary Show, Los Angeles, Cal.
2011 Taubman Museum, Solo Video Exhibit, “The Waking Dreams Of
Magdelena Moliere, Roanoke, Va.
2011 Catherine Edelman Gallery, “21st Century Sideshows” Chicago, Ill.
2010 Imago Gallery, Palm Desert, Ca.
2010 SOFA Chicago, with Habatat, Michigan
2010 Scope – ArtBasel, Switzerland, Micaela Gallery
2009 Miami International Art Fair, Projects Gallery
2009 Red Dot during ArtBasel-Miami with Projects Gallery and
Alida Andersen Projects
2009 SOFA Chicago with Maurine Littleton Gallery
2009 Wheaton Arts Glass Weekend with Maurine Littleton Gallery
2009 L.A. Art Fair with Steps Gallery, London
2009 Palm Beach 3 with Maurine Littleton
2008 Steps Gallery, London, England
2008 Bridge Art Fair during ArtBasel with Projects Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa.
2008 Billy Shire Fine Arts, Los Angeles, Ca.
2008 Habatat Gallery, Berkshires, Ma.
2008 SOFA Chicago, with Maurine Littleton Gallery
2008 Pentimenti Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa. (solo)
2008 Donna Seager Gallery, San Rafael, Ca. (group show)
2008 Marx-Saunders Gallery, Chicago, Ill. (group show)
2008 Jane Sauer Gallery, Sante Fe, New Mexico (solo)
2008 Gallery 24, Berlin, Germany
2007 FLOW Miami with Duane Reed Gallery/St. Louis,Mo.
2007 S.O.F.A Chicago, with Maureen Littleton Gallery
2007 Glass Weekend, Wheaton Village, New Jersey with Littleton Gallery
2007 S.O.F.A. New York, with Jane Sauer Gallery
2007 Smithsonian Craft Show, National Building Museum
2007 Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, Md (solo)
2006 Smithsonian American Art Museum , Luce Foundation Center for American Art , Washington, DC
Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA (solo)
Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD “Compelled By Content II” (feature)
Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD “Caged By History” (solo)
2005 S.O.F.A. NY / WeissPollack Gallery, New York, NY (feature)
Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD “Compelled By Content” (feature and catalogue)
2004 Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD (solo)
2003 Fraser Gallery, Bethesda, MD (solo)
2002 Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC (feature)
2001 Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery Washington, DC (permanent collection)
1994 S.O.F.A. Chicago / Wood Street Gallery, Chicago, IL
