Sarah Hobbs (born 1970) is an artist. Hobbs is from Lynchburg, Virginia. She lives and works in Atlanta.

Sarah Hobbs
Born1970
Lynchburg, Virginia
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Georgia
Known forphotography
Websitesarahhobbs.net

Education

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Hobbs received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in art history from the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia in 1992 and her Master of Fine Arts degree in photography in 2000, also from the University of Georgia.[1][2]

Career

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Hobbs builds psychological, room-scale still lives which engage "apprehension, frustration, confusion, indecision—emotions that trouble the soul" and photographs them as large format color images.[3][4] Her photos, including those in "Small Problems in Living" (1999-2004), are taken on a 4x5 camera.[5] These scenes are set up in Hobb's home or the homes of close friends; they are made to be dreamlike.[6] Across her career, her photographs and installations are about "perfectionism and its cousins, obsessiveness and overcompensation."[7] Hobbs' interest in human mania has spilled out from just photographs of staged scenes and into gallery installations, which suggest craft tipping over into mania and obsession.[8] Broadly, her work also engages the psycho-social, alienation, irrational fears, little neurosis, and common bonds over shared problems.[5]

"Sarah Hobbs's work explores and gives form to various human behaviors and compulsions. She carefully stages and photographs scenes that are meant to embody phobias, neuroses, and obsessions. Her intricate tableaus are simultaneously profound and witty, reflecting Hobbs's understanding of human psychology." - Katherine A. Bussard, Assistant Curator of Photography at The Art Institute of Chicago.[9]

In 2011, her book Small Problems in Living was published; the book compiles three photographic series.[10] In this project, "apparently familiar and harmless scenes become threatening or overwhelming," like way that a familiar scene could be "perceived by someone suffering from paranoia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias or neurosis."[11] Her work is featured in The Focal Press Companion to the Constructed Image in Contemporary Photography (2019) where it is reviewed as "provoking contemplation, inviting [viewers] to see spaces differently," and her contemporaries in fabricated, place-based constructed photography are listed as Noémie Goudal and Oh Soon-Hwa.[12] Vitamin Ph (2006), another book featuring Hobbs' photographs, likens her images to Woody Allen's post-modern comic manifesto, "I can't express anger. I just grow a tumor instead."[5]

Exhibits and awards

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In 2011 Hobbs received an Artadia Award.[1][13] She was also awarded the Dave Brown Projects: Photography Competition 2015 Grand Prize.[14] In 2017 Hobbs was an award recipient from IDEA Capital as she began to move into video work.[15] In 2003 she was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award.[2] Hobbs was a Hudgens Prize finalist in 2017.[16]

Hobbs' work has been exhibited widely and is held in notable public collections including at the Art Institute of Chicago,[17] the Brooklyn Museum,[18] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[19] and the Museum of Contemporary Photography.[20]

Selected exhibitions

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  • 2021 "Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection," High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia[21]
  • 2020 Photography and Narrative, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia[22]
  • 2019 "Louder Than Words," Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia[23]
  • 2019 "Twilight Living," Hathaway Contemporary Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia (solo)[24][25][26]
  • 2017 Sarah Hobbs: Psychological Traces, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, Indiana (solo)[27][28]
  • 2017 A Handful of Dust, in collaboration with Hannah Israel, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia[29]
  • 2016 What is Near: Reflections on Home, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia[30]
  • 2016 Somewhere in the Balance, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, Texas[31][32]
  • 2016 "Interior States," Pinnacle Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia (solo)[4]
  • 2015 ArtLab: Sarah Hobbs: It Started as an Experiment, Seaboard Studios, Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia (solo)[22]
  • 2015 "Flight in Place" (an installation in the home of writer Carson McCullers), Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians, Columbus, Georgia (artist-in-residence) (solo)[33]
  • 2013 Looking Forward: Gifts of Contemporary Art from the Patricia A. Bell Collection, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey[22]
  • 2012 "Contents: Love, Anxiety, Happiness and Everything Else," Photolucida's Critical Mass 2011, at Photo Center NW, Seattle, Washington; Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, Oregon; and Rayko Photo Center, San Francisco, California[32][34][35]
  • 2011 "Sarah Hobbs: Out of Mind," Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (solo)[32][36][37]
  • 2008–2010 "Slightly Unbalanced," with work from Sophie Calle, Mike Kelly, Bruce Nauman, Sarah Hobbs, et al., Independent Curators International, Traveling Exhibition[38][39][40]
  • 2007 "On the Scene: Kota Ezawa, Sarah Hobbs, Angela Strassheim," Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois[32][41]
  • 2006 "Sarah Hobbs: Does This Sound Like You?" Solomon Projects, Atlanta, Georgia (solo)[42]
  • 2004 Small Problems in Living, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, New York[32][43]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Sarah Hobbs". Artadia. Archived from the original on 6 December 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Sarah Hobbs - Biography". Artnet. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  3. ^ Dimling Cochran, Rebecca (2005). "Sarah Hobbs at the Knoxville Museum of Art". Art in America. Vol. 93, no. 9.
  4. ^ a b "Sarah Hobbs exhibition: 'Interior States'". Savannah College of Art and Design. 2016. Archived from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  5. ^ a b c Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography. London; New York, NY: Phaidon Press. 2010 [2006]. ISBN 9780714856421. OCLC 795174663.
  6. ^ Hapgood, Susan (2008). Slightly Unbalanced. New York: Independent Curators International. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-916365-78-3. OCLC 238891401.
  7. ^ Harry, Lou (16 January 2017). "Obsession permeates artist Sarah Hobbs' distressing habitats". Indianapolis Business Journal. Vol. 37, no. 48. pp. 25A, 27A. ISSN 0274-4929. ProQuest 1861769759. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 20 May 2024.
  8. ^ Feaster, Felicia (5 February 2016). "2 photographers, 2 effects in uneven Chastain show: Sarah Hobbs, Susie Winton team for engaging project". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. pp. D5. ISSN 1539-7459. ProQuest 1762620866.
  9. ^ "Sarah Hobbs: Modern Angst". Sumter County Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on 9 September 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  10. ^ Hobbs, Sarah (2011). Sarah Hobbs: Small Problems in Living. Charta. ISBN 978-88-8158-831-2. OCLC 783446541 – via Google Books.
  11. ^ Díaz, Maribel Castro (Winter 2019). "Visual Storytelling in Hypermodernity: The Transformative Construction of Symbolic Realities Through Staged Photography" (PDF). Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics. 42 (3): 87–89. ISSN 0252-8169. ProQuest 2410838249. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 February 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024 – via Gale Academic Onefile.
  12. ^ Wells, Liz (2018). "Sensations of Place: Artists Altered Environments". In Massoni, Anne Leighton; Shindelman, Marni (eds.). The Focal Press Companion to the Constructed Image in Contemporary Photography. Focal Press companion. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-64780-7. OCLC 1049150046 – via O'Reilly.
  13. ^ Fox, Catherine (2 November 2011). "Artadia selects Atlanta prize winners, dispenses $45,000 to seven artists". ArtsATL. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  14. ^ "Competition Press Release: Photography Competition 2015". Dave Bown Projects. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024. Sarah Hobbs received $2,500 USD (Grand Prize)...
  15. ^ Relyea, Laura (10 January 2017). "News: IDEA Capital announces its 2017 Award Recipients". ArtsATL. Archived from the original on 28 November 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  16. ^ Cox, Caroline (8 May 2017). "A conversation with Hudgens Prize finalist Sarah Hobbs". ArtsATL. Archived from the original on 29 November 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  17. ^ "Artists - Sarah Hobbs". Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  18. ^ "Untitled (Eggs) - Sarah Hobbs". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 16 July 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  19. ^ "Sarah Hobbs". Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  20. ^ "Works – Hobbs, Sarah". Museum of Contemporary Photography. Archived from the original on 22 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  21. ^ Bentley, Rosalind (28 April 2021). "Women photographers are focus of High Museum show 'Underexposed'". Chicago. TCA Regional News. ProQuest 2519024905. Eleven of the more than 80 artists featured in the show are from Georgia including....Sarah Hobbs...
  22. ^ a b c Sarah, Hobbs (2019). "Sarah Hobbs - curriculum vitae" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 December 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  23. ^ Feaster, Felicia (22 March 2019). "AJC Visual Arts Review 'Louder than Words': Every picture tells a story in Zuckerman Museum group show". The Atlanta Journal - Constitution. pp. D.1. ISSN 1539-7459. ProQuest 2195023158. One of the most trenchant pieces is Atlanta artist Sarah Hobbs' apocalyptic assemblage "Keep Sake."
  24. ^ Kuntz, Jack (5 June 2019). "Order & Chaos: Sarah Hobbs Creates Scenes of Neurosis and Coping". Art Papers. Archived from the original on 21 September 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  25. ^ Harrison, Shane (18 April 2019). "Things to do in and around Atlanta: April 19-28". Chicago. TCA Regional News. ProQuest 2210869789. 'Twilight Living.' Works by Atlanta photographer Sarah Hobbs. Through May 11. Free. Hathaway Gallery...
  26. ^ Dempster, Claire E. (11 April 2019). "Everything and Nothing You Need: Sarah Hobbs at Hathaway Gallery". Burnaway. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019.
  27. ^ Neumann, Sean (23 May 2017). "An Installation Artist Overhauls Rooms to Explore Our Neuroses". Vice. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  28. ^ Prugh, Brian (14 March 2017). "Sarah Hobbs: Psychological Traces". The Seen. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  29. ^ Collum, Jerry (20 October 2017). "Review: Pleasant, Hobbs and Israel's beautiful elusiveness at Whitespace". ArtsATL. Archived from the original on 3 December 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  30. ^ "Exhibitions: What Is Near: Reflections on Home". High Museum of Art. 2016. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  31. ^ "Houston Center for Photography: Somewhere in the Balance". Houston Museum District. 2015. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  32. ^ a b c d e "Artists - Sarah Hobbs". photography-now.com. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  33. ^ Wertz, Orion (23 March 2015). "Art Review: 200 Words: Sarah Hobbs at the Carson McCullers Center in Columbus". Burnaway. Archived from the original on 27 June 2016.
  34. ^ "Top 50 - Critical Mass 2011". Photolucida. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  35. ^ "Artist Detail - Sarah Hobbs". Photolucida. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  36. ^ Shaw, Kurt (20 February 2011). "Artist's photos lets spaces speak volumes". McClatchy - Tribune Business News. ProQuest 852839340. ...15 massive photographs fill Silver Eye Center for Photography....they are the work of Sarah Hobbs of Atlanta...
  37. ^ "Sarah Hobbs @ Silver Eye". F-Stop Magazine. 21 January 2011. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  38. ^ Foumberg, Jason (5 May 2008). "Slightly Unbalanced". Frieze. No. 115. ISSN 0962-0672. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  39. ^ "Exhibitions - Slightly Unbalanced". Independent Curators International. 2008. Archived from the original on 10 December 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  40. ^ Smith, Matthew Ryan (Jul 2009). "Songs of the Self: Slightly Unbalanced". Fuse. 32 (3): 34–36. ISSN 0838-603X. ProQuest 219946299.
  41. ^ "Indecisiveness, from the series Small Problems in Living - 1999 - Sarah Hobbs". Art Institute of Chicago. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024. Exhibition History: Art Institute of Chicago, 'On the Scene: Kota Ezawa, Sarah Hobbs, Angela Strassheim,' May 19-September 3, 2007. (Katherine A. Bussard)
  42. ^ Cullum, Jerry (18 June 2006). "Picture-perfect scenes filled with inside jokes". The Atlanta Journal - Constitution. pp. L.12. ISSN 1539-7459. ProQuest 337262554.
  43. ^ "Small Problems in Living". Yossi Milo Gallery. November 2004. Archived from the original on 26 May 2020.