STATEMENT
I make paintings, drawings and street performances that explore the liminal space between self and other, often highlighting the connection between the state of the natural world and the state of the human mind. I puddle washy layers of ink to create ethereal portraits of animals; make large and mid-sized oil paintings that contemplate interspecies encounters and offer collaborative performances and projects that insert new possibilities for movement and care into urban environments. All of the work I make, across a range of media, is drawn from my background working on large scale environmental conservation and restoration projects and my decades- long spiritual practice.
BIO
Tracy Grubbs (b. 1964, Pittsburgh, PA) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores impermanence, interconnection, and the liminal space between self and other. She utilizes painting, mixed media and performance to create works that draw on her background in environmental conservation and her decades-long spiritual practice. Grubbs earned a BA in Environmental Studies and Political Philosophy from St. Lawrence University and has studied art and art history at U.C. Berkeley, The San Francisco Art Institute and the Academy of Art of Art University in San Francisco. She regularly attends workshops by the artist and educator duo Rosenclaire.
Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, most recently at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Other venues include the Headlands Center for the Arts, Round Weather Gallery in Oakland, the Morris Graves Museum of Art, and the Marin MOCA. In 2022, she was nominated for the SECA Artist Award sponsored by the San Francisco MOMA. And in 2023 she received an Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission. Her collaborative street performances with choreographer Hope Mohr were featured in the International Colloquium on Art History in Mexico City in 2021. She continues to work on The Gift, a project which shifts the cultural capital of art away from the market by finding alternative ways for paintings to circulate. Grubbs currently lives and works in San Francisco, CA.
Contact: tracy@tracygrubbs.com