2024 Artist in Residence, Ruth Tabancay

About the Artist

Ruth Tabancay began her adult professional life as a hospital laboratory technologist, then as a physician in private practice, and finally as an exhibiting artist. An innate love of science led her to major in Bacteriology in college which would form the basis of her early artwork. Then, her concepts centered around microscopy and scale using the textile techniques – crochet and knitting – that she taught herself as a child as well as the scanning electron microscope, computerized Jacquard loom, and textile techniques such as felting, embroidery, and material-based art. More recently her work concerns environmental issues such as bleaching of the coral reefs, organisms’ ability to digest plastic, sustainable alternatives to fast fashion, and ecological systems such as mycorrhizal networks and bee colonies.

She is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine; and California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited nationally and regionally including The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C.; World Financial Center, New York City; Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco; San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles. She lives In Berkeley, California.

Learn more about Ruth’s work: www.ruthtabancay.com • @ruth_tabancay on Instagram • ruth.tabancay on Facebook

Final Project

Read about Big Oil, Global Warming, and a Calculated Stitch and learn more about Ruth’s residency.

Watch the video to learn how Ruth brought new life to old materials and used art to explore the connections between science, healing, and the environment.