Tom Hubbard ( he / him / his )

My approach to art-making is grounded in my design training and the belief that the best solutions often emerge from the problems themselves. Allowing each project to evolve naturally through a process of inquiry, research and immersion, I interpret and distill visual opportunities into solutions that are specific, unique and meaningful. Tempered by a minimalist approach, and working primarily in clay, I am a hand builder using, slabs and molds to create both sculptural and functional works. 

Growing up in the Midwest, I was drawn to the quiet beauty of abandoned buildings, worn tools, and industrial remnants—elements that continue to inform my visual vocabulary. My recent work explores themes of mobility and my personal response to place. Influenced by bridge trusses, industrial castings, and USGS survey markers, my ceramic sculptures reinterpret these industrial forms as elegant, refined and ambiguous objects. Firing in both wood and soda kilns introduces an element of unpredictability, allowing natural variation and atmospheric effects to become integral to the final work. This balance between control and chance is central to my practice, echoing the tension between structure and impermanence.

Tom Hubbard is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose practice includes ceramics, mixed media, and public art installations. Characterized by a minimalist approach, his work often explores themes of loss, and the effects of mobility or reinterprets industrial forms as elegant, ambiguous objects. Hubbard is a staff member of the Ceramics Program at Harvard University where he teaches, leads workshops, and maintains a studio. Born in San Francisco, CA and holding a BFA from Indiana University, Hubbard grew up in the Midwest and lived in Maine, Ohio, Indiana, Georgia and The Netherlands. He currently resides in Massachusetts with his wife and a rescue dog from Mississippi.