LaToya Hobbs’ Powerful Mixed-Media Art on Show in Nashville

LaToya Hobbs. “Erin and Anyah with Hydrangeas,” 2023. Acrylic and collage on carved wood panel 48 x 60 in. (Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Ariston Jacks)

Baltimore-dependent artist LaToya Hobbs is presenting a series of recent woodblock prints and mixed-media portraits at Nashville’s Frist Artwork Museum. The strong pieces reveal how Hobbs deftly merges her printmaking and portray practices to produce get the job done that speaks to Black womanhood, household, labor, and self-care.

Frequently utilizing her mates and household as models, considerably of her operate commences by using collaborative photography periods with her partner Ariston Jacks. From there, Hobbs starts carving and pushes the boundaries of what we know about printmaking. Not only does she create traditional woodblock prints manufactured by managing a carved matrix by a printing press, but the painted matrixes also grow to be stand-on your own combined-media pieces that include collage. In this way, she elevates a content usually still left in the artist’s studio to high artwork.

For her exhibition at Frist Art Museum, which opens January 26, 2024, Hobbs will screen some of her modern artwork. This contains her monumental do the job Carving Out Time, making its debut bank loan immediately after being obtained by the Baltimore Museum of Art. These carved cherrywood panels are daily life-dimension scenes that adhere to the artist on her everyday plan as a woman, mother, spouse, and artist. Along the partitions of the domestic spaces, Hobbs depicts function by renowned African-American artists like Kerry James Marshall and Alma Thomas. This is only the 2nd time that the huge installation will be demonstrated in its entirety.

Standing together with these scenes are personal portraits these as Erin and Anyah with Hydrangeas. The combined-media perform depicts the artist’s stepdaughter and niece in opposition to lush foliage in the track record. The patterned track record exhibits Hobbs’ prowess for producing texture in her operate, as very well as symbolizing her individual development as an artist.

“Throughout her follow, Hobbs charts a new class in which depictions of the Black family, Black women of all ages, Black rest, and Black artistic labor are regarded, celebrated, and elevated. In each kind and content, Hobbs carves a new custom,” shares guest curator Dr. Rebecca VanDiver, associate professor of African-American art at Vanderbilt University.

Carving a New Tradition: The Artwork of LaToya Hobbs will be on see at Frist Artwork Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, from January 26, 2024 to April 28, 2024.

Artist LaToya Hobbs merges her printmaking and painting techniques to create powerful blended-media pieces.

LaToya Hobbs. “Unbothered,” 2023. Woodcut on Rieves BFK cotton paper 24 x 32 1/4 in. (Courtesy of the artist)

A choice of her modern get the job done will go on display screen at Nashville’s Frist Artwork Museum setting up in early 2024.

LaToya M. Hobbs. “Flourish,” 2023. Acrylic on carved wooden panel 96 x 96 x 2 1/2 in. (Courtesy of the artist)

This contains a full installation of her monumental function Carving Out Time, which is on loan from the Baltimore Museum of Artwork.

LaToya Hobbs. “Carving Out Time (detail),” 2020–21. Oil-based mostly printing ink and acrylic paint on 15 carved cherry plywood panels 96 x 720 in. The Baltimore Museum of Artwork: Nameless Present and Artwork Fund proven with exchange funds from gifts of Dr. and Mrs. Edgar F. Berman, Equitable Bank, N.A., Geoffrey Gates, Sandra O. Moose, Countrywide Endowment for the Arts, Lawrence Rubin, Philip M. Stern, and Alan J. Zakon BMA 2022.11. (Picture courtesy of The Baltimore Museum of Artwork)

Hobbs makes use of her particular encounters to converse to Black womanhood, family members, labor, and self-care.

Latoya M. Hobbs. “In want of relaxation,” 2023. Woodcut 14 1/2 x 33 in. (Courtesy of the artist)

Carving a New Custom: The Artwork of LaToya Hobbs will run from January 26, 2024 to April 28, 2024.

LaToya M. Hobbs. “A Second of Treatment,” 2023. Woodcut 32 1/4 x 24 in. (Courtesy of the artist)

LaToya Hobbs: Web page | Instagram

My Modern day Fulfilled granted permission to characteristic pictures by the Frist Artwork Museum.

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