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 propaganda, 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 story of labor organizing in the South.

Arnold’s work has been profiled in Jacobin, Hyperallergic, Burnaway, Interview, and BOMB Magazines. She is the resident cover artist for Dissent Magazine. Arnold has held solo exhibitions at Field Projects, the Worker's Art and Heritage Center, the List Gallery at Swarthmore College, and ICA Chattanooga. She has completed residencies at Bemis Center, UCross, MacDowell, Stove Works, and Cortex Frontal. Her works are held in international private and public collections, including the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, and Dom Museum Wien. She is the recipient of the 2025 Southern Prize for Visual Art.