GUM BABY by TARIQA WATERS

October 4, 2022 - April 30, 2023

GUM BABY is a temporary memorial to the assured. An anachronism cleverly placed which upends the notion of self-control and agency. A subversive wonderland of glass sculptures, lighting and imagery; In the True Space, Tariqa Waters tells a story of the sticky contradictions and dualities inherent to vices rooted in Americana-distorted memories and tall tales.

Tariqa Waters is a multifaceted contemporary artist known for her whimsical, larger-than-life fabrications, paintings, self-portraitures and installations. Her technicolor characterizations of multigenerational commercial references reclaim an authentic and sincere aesthetic steeped in effortless regality and proudly celebrated traditions. For ten years as founding owner of Martyr Sauce, a Black-Owned, Artist-led Pop Art Museum & Gallery located in the historic arts district of Pioneer Square, Waters is dedicated to cultivating artistic space and community.

Waters received the 2016 Conductive-Garboil-Grant and in 2018, she received the Artist-Trust Fellowship Award. In 2020, Waters received the Seattle Art Museum's Kayla Skinner Special Recognition Award and in 2021, the Gary Glant Special Recognition Award. Also in 2020, Tariqa was the recipient of The Neddy at Cornish Open Medium Award. In 2022 she became an Artist Trust finalist for the Arts Innovator Award.