Rob Tarbell rob@robtarbell.com @robtarbell

Drawing on the ephemeral and fragile properties of smoke, reflection, and porcelain, Imbroglios and L’Avouterie expose false narratives, conflicted virtues, and fractured identities as they are broadcast, displayed, and distorted—using transience and tension as both visual and material metaphors. Across both bodies of work, virtue functions as subject matter not primarily through representation but through the ethical conditions of making—where patience, humility, and attentiveness are materially enacted and preserved as trace. Representational imagery and personifications of virtue emerge as contingent carriers of these processes, while titles function as captions to evidence—naming a specific circumstance, action, or moment, and reinforcing the work as an index of lived conduct rather than an illustration of abstract ideals.
In Imbroglios, figures formed with smoke hover between presence and evasion amidst mirroring and reflective, color-shifting grounds. In L’Avouterie, reassembled ceramic tchotchkes stage awkward, charged narratives that reveal the fragility of purity, perception, and moral posturing. Rooted in personal, cultural, art historical, and religious symbolism, both bodies of work draw from the extremes of chance and control, humor and discomfort, intimacy and spectacle—challenging how myths, both individual and collective, are preserved, reshaped, or undone.


For more than 15 years, Rob Tarbell has been recognized for creating and developing unorthodox processes involving the indirect manipulation of the material properties inherent to smoke and porcelain. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums throughout the United States, Canada, Korea, China, and England.

Tarbell’s work has been featured in the Huffington Post UK, Daily Mail UK, Installation Magazine, New American Paintings, Studio Visit, 500 Ceramic Sculptures, and Ceramic Sculptures, and the Kultura Zabaikalya in Transbaikalia, Siberia. Awards include, the VMFA Professional Artist Fellowship (’07) and residencies at VCCA Amherst & Auvillar, France, Ragdale Foundation, and the Hermitage Artist Retreat.

Rob Tarbell has taught foundations, fine art, and design at Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, New College of Florida and currently is a Professor at Ringling College of Art and Design.