Tabitha Arnold makes labor-intensive art.

Born and based in Chattanooga, Arnold studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, then began to make tapestries using a rug-making tool as a makeshift embroidery needle. As a socialist and labor organizer, her work reflects coming of age during a new wave of unionization in the United States. Arnold’s tapestries borrow imagery from Bible Belt spirituality, social-realist public art movements, and ancient art motifs to create new historical artifacts from a working-class perspective. Her pieces interweave contemporary events with images of historical class struggle, with a special focus on the lesser-known history of labor organizing in the South.

Arnold’s work has been profiled in Jacobin, Hyperallergic, Burnaway, and BOMB, and published on print covers for Dissent Magazine since 2021. Her solo exhibitions include Field Projects, the Worker's Art and Heritage Center, ICA Chattanooga, and the List Gallery at Swarthmore College. She has completed residencies at Bemis Center, UCross, MacDowell, Stove Works, and Cortex Frontal. Her works are held in private and public collections including the Boston Museum of Fine Art and Dom Museum Wien, and have earned numerous awards; most recently the 2025 Southern Prize for Visual Art.