Gallery Talk with Betelhem Makonnen & Tammie Rubin

Join us for this special public program in conjunction with our exhibition Making Africa: A Continent of Contemporary Design.  Tammie and Betelhem will focus on Zanele Muholi’s series Being, as well as Sabelo Mlangeni’s Black Men in Dress, to explore representation, art activism, the history of the black body in photography, and sexuality. This event will take place within the exhibition in our Butler gallery space.

Admission is free on Thursdays.  The Blanton is located at the intersection of Congress Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Paid parking is available in the Brazos Garage on Brazos Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Parking is $4; bring your ticket with you to the museum.

ABOUT BETELHEM MAKONNEN

A native of Ethiopia (b. 1972), Betelhem Makonnen lives and works between Austin Texas, Rio de Janeiro Brasil and Addis Abeba Ethiopia.

B.A., History and Literature of African Diaspora from the University of Texas in Austin

Coursework in Painting, Time-based media, and Modern and Contemporary Art History from the School of Visual Arts of Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro.

MFA (2019) as a New Artists Society Merit Scholar in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Low Res Program.

ABOUT TAMMIE RUBIN

Tammie Rubin was born in Chicago, Illinois, a sculptor who transforms familiar and trivial objects into mythic relics: surreal, dark, playful and sensual. Her works are intensely colored, technically complex, and intricately ornamented sculptural assemblages of everyday objects. Rubin completed her MFA in Ceramics at the University of Washington, and she received a BFA in Ceramics and Art History from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She was awarded a grant from Artist Trust, Grants for Artist Projects (GAP), and an Artist Project Grant from the Illinois Arts Council. Rubin’s work has appeared in the journals fields Issue 7, Ceramics: Art & Perception, Ceramics Monthly, and newspapers such as The Seattle Time, The News-Gazette, and The Austin American Statesman. Rubin has discussed her work and shared her techniques through lectures and workshops at various art centers and universities.