Artist Website
My process combines hand drawn and painted details, multi-media, found objects, occasional movement and film elements. In practice, I take on social commentary, identity politics, empowerment, race and pop culture. Influenced by my upbringing in the South, as a mixed race African American queer woman, early experiences with otherness were ever-present. This evolving perspective led me to investigate the way identities have been shaped by societal interpretations.
“Race in America is both hard and soft. Sometimes we want it diluted to nonexistence. Other times we want it solid and unavoidable. Is it a social construct or a legitimate distinction? That ambivalence is central to Beth Consetta Rubel’s “Higher Learning: Educational Toys.”
Sam Anderson, Austin Chronicle, June, 2017
Dismantling stereotypes is a fundamental part of my art; to engage the viewer, and challenge their preconceived conceptions about gender and race. In my ongoing series “Higher Learning: Educational Toys,” the viewer is asked to participate in the artwork by engaging through play, touch, sound and movement. My goal is to produce a healthy discourse over topics that take people out of their safe space. This is evident in my ongoing series, “The Paper Bag Test.” Within this series, I illustrate African American subjects—many of them well-known celebrities and influential public figures, such as President Barack Obama and Richard Pryor. In light of the recent surge in police brutality cases and state-sanctioned violence against African American men, women, and children, I have also included portraits of people like Michael Brown and Aiyana Stanley Jones in The Paper Bag Test series.