David Tarullo - Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona

About David Tarullo

David Tarullo creates public art and installations, as well as functional ceramic ware for the table and home. Tarullo studied wood-fired ceramics at Northern Arizona University, received his BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and his MFA from the University of Montana. He is a recipient of the Rudy Autio Award and is a former Professor of Ceramics, Sculpture, and Design. He is a Co-Director of the Border Arts Corridor, a non-profit organization that facilitates the creation of public art along the Mexican-American border, and an Artist at Work Fellow.

Materials and Process

Using a wide variety of materials ranging from ceramic, metals, and plastics to locally-sourced reeds, seeds, branches, and mud, Dave Tarullo creates dynamic sculptures and installations that call for social change.

Selected Works

• Cuenca Los Ojos: First in a series of three living sculptures centered on watershed restoration, highlighting people, processes, and importance of rehabilitating the land and recharging aquifers in the Sonoran desert. Collaboration with The Borderlands Restoration Network and Cuenca Los Ojos, funded by the Mellon Foundation.
• They/Them: A 24' sculpture made of 108 enlarged translucent porcelain laptop keys supported by a cobalt blue steel structure, calling for allyship with people who identify as non-binary and critiquing the slow pace of social change in a high-speed digital era.
• Tide to Cycles: A full immersion installation piece incorporating one-hundred and fifty wireframe boxes wrapped in plastic with a six-minute soundscape timed to a shifting colored light sequence, representing emotional cycles and encouraging reflection on mental health.