Tom Carruthers

Tom Carruthers is an architect, artist, and principal of Dream The Combine.

Through his practice cofounded with Jennifer Newsom in 2013, Tom has coproduced numerous site-specific installations in the U.S. and Canada that explore metaphor, perceptual uncertainties, and the boundary between real and illusory space. Dream The Combine has won the 2021 McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists, the 2020–21 J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize, the 2018 Young Architects Program at MoMA PS1, the 2018 Art Omi Architecture Residency, and the 2017 FSP/Jerome Foundation Fellowship. They are cocurators of the 2023 Counterpublic Triennial in St. Louis, Missouri.

Dream the Combine has exhibited at MoMA and MoMA PS1 in New York City; and in Seattle, Washington; East Haddam, Connecticut; Vancouver, Canada; Rome Italy; and Minneapolis, and St. Paul Minnesota. Their work has been published widely, including Metropolis Magazine, Architect Magazine, Log, Architectural Record, The Architect's Newspaper, and Dezeen. They are currently at work on upcoming installations in Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, and Columbus, Indiana. Carruthers is a graduate of the Yale School of Architecture and Brown University, where he received a B.F.A. in drawing and sculpture.

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Awards, Grants, and Fellowships (Selected)

  • McKnight Fellowship for Visual Artists, McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2021)
  • J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize, Exhibit Columbus, Columbus, Indiana (2020)
  • Young Architects Program, MoMA PS1, New York City (2018)
  • Architect-in-Residence, Art Omi, Ghent, New York (2018)
  • Faculty Design Award, American Collegiate Schools of Architecture (2018)

Exhibitions and Presentations (Selected)

  • Lure, MadArt Studio, Seattle, Washington (2019)
  • Hide & Seek, MoMA PS1, New York City (2018)    
  • Longing, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2015)

Publications (Selected)

  • "Dream The Combine." The Great Northern Podcast (2021)
  • "Architect Sessions Episode 141: A Conversation with Dream The Combine." Archinect (2019)
  • "Conversation with Eric Shiner." University of Minnesota School of Architecture (2019)

Selected Work

  • A metal outdoor canopy in an urban setting.

    Hide & Seek (2018), by Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers in collaboration with Clayton Binkley of ARUP. Commissioned by MoMA PS1 for the 2018 Young Architects Program, curated by The Museum of Modern Art.

  • A large group of students sitting on bleachers surrounded by concrete walls.

    Hide & Seek (2018), by Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers in collaboration with Clayton Binkley of ARUP. Commissioned by MoMA PS1 for the 2018 Young Architects Program, curated by The Museum of Modern Art.

  • A blue facade constructed around the the front of a buildings exterior with people walking along a sidewalk next to an orange and yellow tree.

    Lure (2019), MadArt Studio, Seattle, Washington. Commissioned by MadArt Studio, by Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers of Dream The Combine in collaboration with Clayton Binkley.

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