Marian Tubbs’ assemblage-focused practice explores her broad research interests in digital and vision technologies, materiality, language and ecology. Tubbs conflates material juxtapositions between body and object, high and low culture, analogue and digital, physical and virtual, natural and artificial, to transform the everyday into a space of interrogation. Her works often slide between these binaries, incorporating a variety of media, including video, digital and analogue painting, sculpture and installation. Often constructed from the physical and digital detritus of contemporary life – from found photos and surveillance footage to scavenged disposable items – her works position objects, images and text in new or unexpected combinations to question traditional notions of value.
In 2017 Tubbs was the recipient of the Marten Bequest Scholarship for sculpture and in 2015 she was awarded the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia's Online Commission. A major mid-career survey of Tubbs’ practice, we need privacy guys here too, was held at the USC Art Gallery, accompanied by a significant publication. Tubbs' work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Museum of Contemporary Art and international institutional collections. Tubbs holds a PhD from UNSW Art & Design and is course coordinator and senior lecturer in Art and Design at Southern Cross University. Previously she was a lecturer in Photomedia at the National Art School, Sydney.
stress less
2017
fiberglass, aqua-resin, silicone, speaker wire, pigment, hair dye, ice ball
34.3 x 43.2 x 10.2 cm
the sun will eat itself (where Gs go to paradise) [video still]
2021
digital video with sound
6 mins 1 sec
above and below
2015
pigment print on chromate centurion metallic paper, artist ply frame
112.0 x 72.5 x 6.8 cm
definition
2015
found painting, jelly wax, petals, plaster bandage, latex, sun visor, studio matter, spray paint, artist ply frame
112.0 x 72.5 x 6.8 cm
definition (detail)
2015
found painting, jelly wax, petals, plaster bandage, latex, sun visor, studio matter, spray paint, artist ply frame
112.0 x 72.5 x 6.8 cm
young kids and best friends
2015
tinted water, pigment, enamel, bags, breakable glass, plastic flowers, latex, foam
dimensions variable
young kids and best friends (detail)
2015
tinted water, pigment, enamel, bags, breakable glass, plastic flowers, latex, foam
dimensions variable
riven
2015
digital video with sound
00:04:18
Installation view
2015
ABSTRACT SEX
2016
installation view
new hunger
2014
Installation view
Artspace Sydney
Ort (detail)
2016
moss, substrates, plastic flowers, dinosaur toy, copper gutter
304.8 x 15.2 x 7.6 cm
talked into quiet
2014
cardboard, plaster, chicken wire, latex, fake flower, artist frame
62.0 x 44.0 cm
to banish air with air
2014
digital prints on CAV clear, acrylic, marble
139.0 × 145.0 × 64.5 cm
argot
2019
oil on linen
207.0 x 95.0 cm
Ruler, rete
2019
installation view
over-coded
2019
installation view
suprasubliminal
2019
bronze
53.0 x 46.0 x 40.0 cm
Colour of the year
2019
oil on linen
81.0 x 61.0 cm
when she received a seat at the table
2020
sublimated print on brushed gloss aluminium
102.0 x 72.0 framed
sands titre (detail)
2021
oil on dollhouse facades, decorative sand, glass, silicone
a complicated good time
2021
installation view
a complicated good time
2021
installation view
books (you were nice to me, and then you were mean, and then i gave up)
2022
inkjet on hahnemühle photo rag
edition of 2 + 1AP
canyons and sharks
2022
digital print on lustre
edition of 2 + 1AP
the farm
2021
inkjet print
edition of 2 + 1AP
resort work
2022
installation view
Photo: Josh Hourigan
In Practice: Material Deviance
2017
installation view
sands titre
2021
oil on dollhouse facades, decorative sand, glass, silicone
variable
valuable feedstock
2017
pigment print on silk
100.0 x 75.0 cm
a complicated good time
2021
installation view
ascendence in flow
2016
copper, gel wax, clay
152.0 × 17.5 cm
lazy river
2022
digital print on lustre
edition of 2 + 1AP
i am series of chemical changes
2017
pigment print on silk
100.0 x 75.0 cm
Quiet revolutions and enfant terribles
2017
Installation view
Post-early terrain
2017
plaster, silicone, resin, fibre glass, pigment, orchard moss, speaker wire, costume nails, hair dye, acrylic
72.5 x 112.5 x 6.8 cm
the sun will eat itself (where Gs go to paradise) [video still]
2021
digital video with sound
6 mins 1 sec
the sun will eat itself (where Gs go to paradise) [video still]
2021
digital video with sound
6 mins 1 sec
have we set up our own resorts
2022
digital print on lustre
edition of 2 + 1AP
i will do all the work i will just do it all wrong
2022
digital print on lustre
edition of 2 + 1AP
resort work
2022
installation view
the sun will eat itself (where Gs go to paradise) [video still]
2021
digital video with sound
6 mins 1 sec
resort work
2022
installation view
Photo: Josh Hourigan
Jupiter 2
2020
sublimated print on brushed gloss aluminium
102.0 x 72.0 framed
alien crosstalk sentient surf
2018
fusion print on aluminium, custom machine cut
150.0 x 100.0 cm
velocity myth
2020
sublimated print on brushed gloss aluminium
102.0 x 72.0 framed
Quiet revolutions and enfant terribles
2017
Installation view
steeper than legal
2020
sublimated print on brushed gloss aluminium
102.0 x 72.0 framed
outta ma hair into the swim (dolphin sex) local
2020
sublimated print on brushed gloss aluminium
102.0 x 72.0 framed
mass and omnipresent renewal
2015
breakable glass, enamel, acrylic, silicone pigment, level, plastic leaves. fake pearls, silver foil, foam
dimensions variable