CURRENT Exhibition

Take Care

By Sarah Hirneisen & Tammie Rubin

Exhibition Dates: August 15- September 13, 2025
Artist Reception: Friday, August 15th 7-10pm
Third Thursday East Austin Arts District hours/ Artist Talk: August 21st 6-9pm (artist talk at 7:30pm)
Open Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 12-6pm

Take Care

Take Care is a valediction, a proclamation, a wish, a blessing, a warning, and a curse. In this exhibition, Hirneisen and Rubin contemplate matters of care through the lens oflabor. These perspectives of care range from the invisible domestic, economic, and societal work done by women, their acts of hospitality, gestures of ritual, and operations of bearing witness. Hirneisen and Rubin are process-based sculptors in which labor is essential for the exploration and execution of their work. Both artists engage in mold-making of the familiar and the transformation of objects through casting and material choices, reframing notions of the function and representational power of objects.

Hirneisen employs time-consuming, craft-based techniques such as brush-making, and basketry. These traditional processes are pushed beyond their conventional uses, with materials being explored in new and unexpected ways. Her practice elevates the physical act of creation while probing its connections to care, repetition, and resilience. Hirneisen’s own hands appear in the work—both figuratively and literally—as she constructs objects that function as symbolic tools or offerings. Many pieces serve as a farewell to her oldest child, who is preparing to leave home for college, and consider what is needed to thrive in today’s world. These works reimagine domestic life and challenge entrenched ideas about utility, gendered labor, and value, asking viewers to look again at what has long been overlooked.

Rubin is an artist who meticulously explores the inherent power of objects as signifiers, wishful contraptions, and mythic relics. Her work is a deep dive into the world of ritual and domestic objects, coded symbols, maps, Black citizenry, and migration. Rubin’s sculptures and installations consider narratives and spaces of metaphysical, physical, and spiritual escape. By using imagery and objects with which we are familiar, she prompts us to contemplate ideas of authenticity and inherited meanings, while also inviting new considerations that open dream-like spaces of unexpected associations and dislocations.

Take care is a meditation and commemoration of labor fully acknowledged, reciprocated, and freely given.  The artists reframe care not as background noise, but as a central and complex force in both private and public life. A quote credited to James Baldwin goes, “Darling, I have no dream job. I do not dream of labor.” Hirneisen and Rubin agree; however, they do dream of care.

Sarah Hirneisen (b. 1978 Reading, PA) uses three-dimensional materials and processes to elevate familiar and everyday objects. Born and raised in rural Pennsylvania, Sarah now lives and works in Austin, Texas. She received a BFA in glass from Rhode Island School of Design in 2001 and her MFA in sculpture in 2011 from Mills College. Sarah has received a Community Initiatives Grant through the City of Austin, was awarded a residency through the Hungarian Multicultural Center, has received an Individual Artist Grant through the City of Oakland’s Cultural Art’s Program and a Phelan, Murphy & Cadogan fellowship from the San Francisco Foundation for graduate students in the arts. She is Associate Professor of Instruction at Texas State University teaching sculpture and foundations, and has taught at Mills College, Cabrillo College, and City College of San Francisco. Sarah has exhibited her work extensively throughout the US as well as Hungary, Korea and England and is a member of ICOSA Collective, an Austin based Arts Collective and the Texas Sculpture Group.

Tammie Rubin is a sculptor and installation artist who explores the tension between the readymade and the handcrafted object, as well as the innate power of objects. Rubin has received residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Penland School of Craft, and Sculpture Space, Inc. She is the 2022 Tito's Prize winner and a 2024 USA Fellow in Craft. Rubin exhibits widely; recent exhibitions include venues such as C24 Gallery, New York, NY; Rivalry Projects, Buffalo, NY; Patel Brown, Toronto, Canada; Elisabeth Ney Museum, Austin TX; Ruiz-Healy Art, San Antonio, TX;  grayDUCK Gallery, Austin, TX; and form & concept, Santa Fe, NM.Rubin's artwork has received reviews in online and print publications, including Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, Oxford American, Art in America, Glasstire, Austin Chronicle, Sightlines, Conflict of Interest, Arts and Culture Texas, and Ceramics: Art & Perception. She is a member of ICOSA Collective, a non-profit cooperative gallery. Born and raised in Chicago, Rubin resides in Austin, Texas, where she is an Associate Professor of Studio Arts, Ceramics at Texas State University.

Take Care, Sarah Hirneisen & Tammie Rubin
Exhibition Dates: August 15- September 13, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, August 15th 7-10pm
Third Thursday East Austin Arts District hours/ Artist Talk: August 21st 6-9pm (artist talk at 7:30pm)
Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays 12-6 pm or by appointment
ICOSA Collective Gallery
916 Springdale Rd, Bldg 2, #102, Austin, TX 78702
www.icosacollective.com