Nick Hobbs' ‘Midst' Opens on Nov. 10 with Artist Talk, Stargazing
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Determinism is one of the graphite drawings in Midst: Artwork by Nick Hobbs opening Nov. 10, 2022, at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas.
Visitors Can View Sky with Telescopes During 7 p.m. Stargazing Party
Nick Hobbs
Mimas is one of the graphite drawings in Midst: Artwork by Nick Hobbs opening Nov. 10, 2022, at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas.
An exhibition of drawings that explores juxtaposition of the scales of the everyday human experience and the metaphysical with imagery of earthly objects and the cosmos opens Thursday, Nov. 10, 2022, at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas (ASC), 701 S. Main St. in Pine Buff.
Midst: Artwork by Nick Hobbs debuts with a free, public reception from 5-7 p.m., with an artist talk at 5:30. A stargazing party, hosted by the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society, will follow at 7 p.m. Telescopes will be available for visitors to use.
The exhibition is sponsored by the Kline Family Foundation. The reception is sponsored in part by volunteer group Art Krewe and MK Distributors.
Midst is Nick Hobbs’ first solo show. The 24 highly detailed graphite drawings, some as small as an inch square, interweave the everyday and the sublime in curated juxtapositions.
“Midst attempts to connect and understand the familiarities of the everyday earthly experiences of humanity with the metaphysical, and the seemingly limitless expanse of space and time,” ASC Curator Kevin Haynie said.
“Hobbs has taken a scientific approach to constructing the compositions and plays with the viewer's common understandings of photography and documentation,” Haynie said, “while asking questions about the mysteries of consciousness and the connections between all we know and all may never know, but are compelled to discover, however futile that may be."
The title is a reminder that our narrow experiences exist in the midst of everything else, Hobbs explained.
“And beyond all that we know, there’s even more we don’t,” Hobbs said. “In the midst of a complex global society, forgotten millennia of human history, the sea of galaxies that we drift through at an imperceptibly slow pace (on our time scale) … all those huge unfolding stories we seemingly find ourselves smack-dab in the middle of.”
Hobbs continued, “And to make matters more confusing, being born right after the invention of the internet (1997) meant being born with a firehose of information to drink from. And we all find ourselves, now, in the midst of — neck deep in — a bloated sea of knowledge. By depicting such varied subjects in my drawings, I’m wondering about how it can all be reined into one picture.”
These drawings are also snapshots of an attempt to reconcile two scales. Hobbs, who is also an amateur astronomer, explained in his artist statement. “First, the scale of the everyday, the earthly, the personal, and the human. … Second, the scale of deep time and the cosmological.”
Astronomy influences his art and everything he does, he said. “I got my first useable telescope in middle school and that sealed the deal. I’ve had telescopes ever since, started an astronomy club in high school, and it remains a staple presence in my life.”
Hobbs, who lives in Fayetteville, is a candidate in the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Arkansas. He plans to graduate in spring 2023 with an emphasis in drawing.
Oligocene is one of the graphite drawings in Midst: Artwork by Nick Hobbs opening Nov. 10, 2022, at The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas.
“Not many art schools offer a degree in drawing specifically, so it’s interesting to be part of conversations that imagine it as more than just a part of painting,” Hobbs said about the program.
He is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana, and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston in 2020.
In August 2022, he was a resident artist at the Willow House residency program near Big Bend National Park in Terlingua, Texas.
“It was a sublime and isolated place to make drawings for this show and connect with other artists from all over,” Hobbs said. “My wife Camille [who is also an artist] also participated in the residency, so it was nice to get in a vacation together before my last year of grad school started up.”
As an undergraduate, he studied figurative drawing in the residency program at the New York Academy of Art in New York City in 2018.
“The New York Academy of Art is a school in Lower Manhattan that teaches traditional skills with a particular focus on the human figure,” Hobbs explained. “It was co-founded by Andy Warhol, who purchased the building it still occupies on Franklin Street.
“It was just one summer, but it was one of the most formative experiences of my career. I took classes five days a week drawing, painting, and sculpting from live models, and got catapulted head-first into a large but niche artistic community. It cemented my inclination toward representational ways of working and gave me friends for life. I also met my now-wife during that summer – she was working an internship in the city at the same time. An important summer to say the least!”
Among the cities in which his work has been exhibited are Fayetteville and West Fork, Arkansas; New York City, Brooklyn, and Syracuse, New York; McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana; Tyler, Texas; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana.
“Midst” will be on view in the International Paper Gallery through Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023.
To learn more about Hobbs, visit nickhobbs.art and follow him on Instagram.
Stargazing Party Following Reception
A stargazing party, hosted by the Central Arkansas Astronomical Society (CAAS), will follow the opening reception at 7 p.m. Telescopes will be available, and Hobbs and volunteers from CAAS will help visitors view the night sky.
“I hope the community will join us for a fun night,” Hobbs said. “We should have beautiful views of the crescent moon (my favorite) as well as Jupiter and Saturn.”
Hobbs Leads Next Family FunDay on Saturday
Hobbs will also bring his astronomical knowledge to ASC’s next Second Saturday Family FunDay.
The free family-friendly event — “Amateur Astronomy with Nick Hobbs” — is 1-3 p.m. Nov. 12. Hobbs will help visitors learn about the universe and guide them in using a telescope.
Second Saturday Family FunDay is sponsored by the Pine Bluff Area Community Foundation, an affiliate office of the Arkansas Community Foundation.
