Tim Tate

Tim Tate is a Washington, DC, native and has been working with sculpture for the past 30 years. Blending a traditional craft with new media technology, he aims to produce contemporary work with the aesthetic of Victorian techno-fetishism, which emerged from his fascination with Jules Verne as a boy. He references many possible histories to show our common artistic ancestry and illustrate alternate paths. His work hovers between subjects of scientific curiosity, contemporary video imagery, relics, rituals and dreams. To him, these works are transparent reliquaries of sorts, simultaneously offering intimacy and distance. With technology rapidly changing the way we perceive art, Tate invents bridges between past and present in an effort to define our time and make sense of this highly transitory moment in artistic history.

Co-Founder of the Washington Glass School, Tate’s work is in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Mint Museum. He was the 2010 recipient of the Virginia Groot Foundation award for sculpture, second place in the 2017 London Contemporary Art Prize, and is a 2018 James Renwick Alliance Distinguished Artist, among many other awards. Interview magazine awarded Tate first place in the 2007 International Art Competition. He taught in Istanbul in August 2007 and at Penland School on several occasions. He was the featured artist for their 2018 annual auction and was the Development Chair for the Penland Board of Trustees from 2014 to 2018. Tate received a Fulbright Award from the University of Sunderland in England in 2012. He participated in the Glasstress show with Ai Wei Wei and Vic Muniz during the 2019 Venice Biennale.