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Tab Link
(They/Them)

Fitchburg, WI
(563) 581-5522
TabLink.Handworks@gmail.com
TabLinkHandworks.com

Socials: @TabLink.Handworks

Ceramic vessels have an innate human connection. We are the only ones who create things to hold. These familiar objects are a baseline connection to my audience; a place to explore queerness, interpersonal relations, and the labor required for both. 

I use stoneware and b-mix to create familiar forms with subtle queer qualities. Quiet quirks reflect my own relationship with my queerness. Where I grew up in the midwest, I didn’t have many queer role models. I felt different, out of place, and without the words to describe it for most of my life.  I am still unsure, trying one thing or another until I find a place to fit. This is also how I build my pots, altering traditional thrown forms, attempting to queer their posture, presence, and usage. Using a mix of impulsive and calculated moves, I bend, carve, and combine thrown forms until they feel like a whole. 

High-temperature wood firing is also a combination of impulsive and calculated moves. The kiln becomes an expedited version of the earth, adding outside pressure to our work.  Surface design is decided by the positioning of the pieces in the kiln and how the flames will move between them; glaze and slip are used, only to be changed by the ash accumulated from our labors. By finishing these pieces in atmospheric firings, the kiln puts its take on the form such as society puts its take on queer bodies. Unlike people, its impulses and calculations are recorded for all to see. 



Tab Link (They/Them)  is a midwestern artist who investigates queerness and perception through functional ceramic objects and atmospheric firing. They have been firing atmospheric kilns—salt, soda, and wood—since 2011. Tab apprenticed with Gary Carstens at Mississippi Mud Studios and received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018. 

While Tab’s home base has always been the Midwest, their passion has led them to pursue firing opportunities nationwide. Most recently as the Spring 2023 Artist-in-Residence at Township 10 in Marshall, North Carolina, focusing on a newly built gas-salt kiln. Through firing various styles of kilns, Tab not only develops their own practice but also explores the dynamics around firing teams, knowledge sharing, and influence. They strive to document and share findings on materials and process, and to encourage and expand access in the ceramics community.

Gallery
Representation


Planted
245 W. 1st St.
Dubuque, IA
(563) 239-9289
planteddbq@gmail.com

 

Pottery Tour

October 17-19

Twenty Dirty Hands

Elizabeth & Galena, IL

Hazel Green, WI 

Dubuque, Asbury & Maquoketa, IA

Gallery Shows

June

Fired with Pride

Sidestreet Arts

Portland, OR

 

August

Twenty Dirty Hands

Dubuque Area Arts Collective Gallery

Dubuque, IA

Art Fairs

June 6-8

Iowa Arts Festival

Iowa City, IA

June 13-15

The Big Gay Pride Market

Madison, WI

July 12-13

Art Fair Off the Square

Madison, WI

July 19

Stockholm Art Fair

Stockholm, WI

August 2-3

Dubuque Fest

Dubuque, IA

August 16-17

Elkader Art in the Park

Elkader, IA

August 30-31

Paoli Art in the Park

Paoli, WI

September 6-7

Wausau Festival of the Arts

Wausau, WI

September 20-21

Driftless Arts Festival

Soldiers Grove, WI

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