Sarah Hobbs

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.{{Cite web |date= |title=Sarah Hobbs |url=https://artadia.org/artist/sarah-hobbs/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231206043545/https://artadia.org/artist/sarah-hobbs/ |archive-date=6 December 2023 |access-date=11 June 2019 |website=Artadia}}{{cite web |title=Sarah Hobbs - Biography |url=http://www.artnet.com/artists/sarah-hobbs/biography |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521031111/https://www.artnet.com/artists/sarah-hobbs/biography |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=24 June 2021 |website=Artnet}}

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.{{Cite news|last=Dimling Cochran|first=Rebecca|date=2005|title=Sarah Hobbs at the Knoxville Museum of Art|volume= 93|work=Art in America|issue=9}}{{Cite news |date=2016 |title=Sarah Hobbs exhibition: 'Interior States' |url=https://www.scad.edu/event/2016-06-17-sarah-hobbs-exhibition-interior-states |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190406214148/https://www.scad.edu/event/2016-06-17-sarah-hobbs-exhibition-interior-states |archive-date=6 April 2019 |access-date=21 February 2017 |newspaper=Savannah College of Art and Design |language=en}} Her photos, including those in "Small Problems in Living" (1999-2004), are taken on a 4x5 camera.{{Cite book |title=Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography. |date= |publisher=Phaidon Press |year=2010 |isbn=9780714856421 |location=London; New York, NY |language=en |oclc=795174663 |orig-date=2006}} These scenes are set up in Hobb's home or the homes of close friends; they are made to be dreamlike.{{Cite book |last=Hapgood |first=Susan |title=Slightly Unbalanced |publisher=Independent Curators International |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-916365-78-3 |location=New York |pages=56 |language=en |oclc=238891401}} Across her career, her photographs and installations are about "perfectionism and its cousins, obsessiveness and overcompensation."{{Cite news |last=Harry |first=Lou |date=16 January 2017 |title=Obsession permeates artist Sarah Hobbs' distressing habitats |url=https://www.ibj.com/articles/62050-lous-views-obsession-permeates-artist-sarah-hobbs-distressing-habitats |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240521-025618/https://www.ibj.com/articles/62050-lous-views-obsession-permeates-artist-sarah-hobbs-distressing-habitats |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=20 May 2024 |work=Indianapolis Business Journal |pages=25A, 27A |volume=37 |issue=48 |issn=0274-4929 |id={{ProQuest|1861769759}}}} 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.{{Cite news |last=Feaster |first=Felicia |date=5 February 2016 |title=2 photographers, 2 effects in uneven Chastain show: Sarah Hobbs, Susie Winton team for engaging project |work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution |pages=D5 |issn=1539-7459 |id={{ProQuest|1762620866}}}} Broadly, her work also engages the psycho-social, alienation, irrational fears, little neurosis, and common bonds over shared problems.

"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.{{Cite web |title=Sarah Hobbs: Modern Angst |url=http://www.sumtergallery.org/Sarah_Hobbs.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909094517/http://www.sumtergallery.org/Sarah_Hobbs.html |archive-date=9 September 2013 |access-date=21 February 2017 |website=Sumter County Gallery of Art |language=en}}

In 2011, her book Small Problems in Living was published; the book compiles three photographic series.{{Cite book |last=Hobbs |first=Sarah |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bLUygAACAAJ |title=Sarah Hobbs: Small Problems in Living |date= |publisher=Charta |year=2011 |isbn=978-88-8158-831-2 |language=en |oclc=783446541 |via=Google Books}} 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."{{Cite journal |last=Díaz |first=Maribel Castro |date=Winter 2019 |title=Visual Storytelling in Hypermodernity: The Transformative Construction of Symbolic Realities Through Staged Photography |url=https://jcla.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JCLA-42.3-Winter-2019-Maribel-Castro-Diaz.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=87–89 |issn=0252-8169 |id={{ProQuest|2410838249}} |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240225123807/https://jcla.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/JCLA-42.3-Winter-2019-Maribel-Castro-Diaz.pdf |archive-date=25 February 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |via=Gale Academic Onefile}} 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.{{Cite book |last=Wells |first=Liz |url=https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/the-focal-press/9781317299103/ |title=The Focal Press Companion to the Constructed Image in Contemporary Photography |date= |publisher=Routledge |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-315-64780-7 |editor-last=Massoni |editor-first=Anne Leighton |series=Focal Press companion |location=New York, NY |language=en |chapter=Sensations of Place: Artists Altered Environments |oclc=1049150046 |editor-last2=Shindelman |editor-first2=Marni |chapter-url=https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/the-focal-press/9781317299103/xhtml/ch03.xhtml |via=O'Reilly}} 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."

In 2011 Hobbs received an Artadia Award.{{Cite news |last=Fox |first=Catherine |date=2 November 2011 |title=Artadia selects Atlanta prize winners, dispenses $45,000 to seven artists |url=https://www.artsatl.org/breaking-news-artadia-selects-atlanta-prizewinners-dispenses-45000-to-seven-artists/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130022042/https://www.artsatl.org/breaking-news-artadia-selects-atlanta-prizewinners-dispenses-45000-to-seven-artists/ |archive-date=30 November 2022 |access-date=21 May 2024 |work=ArtsATL}} She was also awarded the Dave Brown Projects: Photography Competition 2015 Grand Prize.{{Cite web |date= |title=Competition Press Release: Photography Competition 2015 |url=http://www.davebownprojects.com/photo_2015_competition_press_release.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326114230/http://www.davebownprojects.com/photo_2015_competition_press_release.html |archive-date=26 March 2023 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Dave Bown Projects |language=en-US |quote=Sarah Hobbs received $2,500 USD (Grand Prize)...}} In 2017 Hobbs was an award recipient from IDEA Capital as she began to move into video work.{{Cite news |last=Relyea |first=Laura |date=10 January 2017 |title=News: IDEA Capital announces its 2017 Award Recipients |url=https://www.artsatl.org/news-idea-capital-announces-2017-award-recipients/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128181855/https://www.artsatl.org/news-idea-capital-announces-2017-award-recipients/ |archive-date=28 November 2022 |access-date=21 May 2024 |work=ArtsATL}} In 2003 she was a finalist for the Forward Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award. Hobbs was a Hudgens Prize finalist in 2017.{{Cite news |last=Cox |first=Caroline |date=8 May 2017 |title=A conversation with Hudgens Prize finalist Sarah Hobbs |url=https://www.artsatl.org/conversation-hudgens-prize-finalist-sarah-hobbs/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221129142801/https://www.artsatl.org/conversation-hudgens-prize-finalist-sarah-hobbs/ |archive-date=29 November 2022 |access-date=21 May 2024 |work=ArtsATL}}

Hobbs' work has been exhibited widely and is held in notable public collections including at the Art Institute of Chicago,{{Cite web |title=Artists - Sarah Hobbs |url=https://www.artic.edu/artists/102492/sarah-hobbs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220628120542/https://www.artic.edu/artists/102492/sarah-hobbs |archive-date=28 June 2022 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Art Institute of Chicago}} the Brooklyn Museum,{{Cite web |title=Untitled (Eggs) - Sarah Hobbs |url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/168614 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716203413/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/168614 |archive-date=16 July 2023 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Brooklyn Museum}} the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,{{Cite web |title=Sarah Hobbs |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/160761 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521234930/https://collections.lacma.org/node/160761 |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Los Angeles County Museum of Art}} and the Museum of Contemporary Photography.{{Cite web |title=Works – Hobbs, Sarah |url=https://mocp.emuseum.com/people/5941/hobbs-sarah/objects |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240522000212/https://mocp.emuseum.com/people/5941/hobbs-sarah/objects |archive-date=22 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Museum of Contemporary Photography}}

• 2021 "Underexposed: Women Photographers from the Collection," High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia{{Cite news |last=Bentley |first=Rosalind |date=28 April 2021 |title=Women photographers are focus of High Museum show 'Underexposed' |location=Chicago |id={{ProQuest|2519024905}} |quote=Eleven of the more than 80 artists featured in the show are from Georgia including....Sarah Hobbs... |agency=TCA Regional News}}
• 2020 Photography and Narrative, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia{{Cite web |last=Sarah |first=Hobbs |date=2019 |title=Sarah Hobbs - curriculum vitae |url=https://img-cache.oppcdn.com/fixed/28972/assets/XakpFJ7xOkzMaLR4.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209025953/https://img-cache.oppcdn.com/fixed/28972/assets/XakpFJ7xOkzMaLR4.pdf |archive-date=9 December 2022 |access-date=30 March 2021}}
• 2019 "Louder Than Words," Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia{{Cite news |last=Feaster |first=Felicia |date=22 March 2019 |title=AJC Visual Arts Review 'Louder than Words': Every picture tells a story in Zuckerman Museum group show |work=The Atlanta Journal - Constitution |pages=D.1. |issn=1539-7459 |id={{ProQuest|2195023158}} |quote=One of the most trenchant pieces is Atlanta artist Sarah Hobbs' apocalyptic assemblage "Keep Sake."}}
• 2019 "Twilight Living," Hathaway Contemporary Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia (solo){{Cite web |last=Kuntz |first=Jack |date=5 June 2019 |title=Order & Chaos: Sarah Hobbs Creates Scenes of Neurosis and Coping |url=https://www.artpapers.org/order-chaos/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230921130352/https://www.artpapers.org/order-chaos/ |archive-date=21 September 2023 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Art Papers |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Harrison |first=Shane |date=18 April 2019 |title=Things to do in and around Atlanta: April 19-28 |location=Chicago |id={{ProQuest|2210869789}} |quote='Twilight Living.' Works by Atlanta photographer Sarah Hobbs. Through May 11. Free. Hathaway Gallery... |agency=TCA Regional News}}{{Cite news |last=Dempster |first=Claire E. |date=11 April 2019 |title=Everything and Nothing You Need: Sarah Hobbs at Hathaway Gallery |url=https://burnaway.org/everything-and-nothing-you-need-sarah-hobbs-at-hathaway-gallery/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190416023855/https://burnaway.org/everything-and-nothing-you-need-sarah-hobbs-at-hathaway-gallery/ |archive-date=16 April 2019 |work=Burnaway}}
• 2017 Sarah Hobbs: Psychological Traces, Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, Indiana (solo){{Cite web |last=Neumann |first=Sean |date=23 May 2017 |title=An Installation Artist Overhauls Rooms to Explore Our Neuroses |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/sarah-hobbs-installation-artist-mental-health/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230601013822/https://www.vice.com/en/article/ywm49y/sarah-hobbs-installation-artist-mental-health |archive-date=1 June 2023 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Vice |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Prugh |first=Brian |date=14 March 2017 |title=Sarah Hobbs: Psychological Traces |url=https://theseenjournal.org/sarah-hobbs-psychological-traces/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240521-230839/https://theseenjournal.org/sarah-hobbs-psychological-traces/ |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=The Seen |language=en-US}}
• 2017 A Handful of Dust, in collaboration with Hannah Israel, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia{{Cite news |last=Collum |first=Jerry |date=20 October 2017 |title=Review: Pleasant, Hobbs and Israel’s beautiful elusiveness at Whitespace |url=https://www.artsatl.org/review-pleasant-hobbs-israels-beautiful-elusiveness-whitespace/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203233126/https://www.artsatl.org/review-pleasant-hobbs-israels-beautiful-elusiveness-whitespace/ |archive-date=3 December 2022 |access-date=21 May 2024 |work=ArtsATL}}
• 2016 What is Near: Reflections on Home, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=Exhibitions: What Is Near: Reflections on Home |url=https://high.org/exhibition/what-is-near-reflections-on-home/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521224627/https://high.org/exhibition/what-is-near-reflections-on-home/ |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=High Museum of Art |language=en-US}}
• 2016 Somewhere in the Balance, Houston Center for Photography, Houston, Texas{{Cite web |date=2015 |title=Houston Center for Photography: Somewhere in the Balance |url=https://houmuse.org/explore/events/somewhere-in-the-balance/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521232716/https://houmuse.org/explore/events/somewhere-in-the-balance/ |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Houston Museum District |language=en}}
• 2016 "Interior States," Pinnacle Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia (solo)
• 2015 ArtLab: Sarah Hobbs: It Started as an Experiment, Seaboard Studios, Columbus State University, Columbus, Georgia (solo)
• 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){{Cite news |last=Wertz |first=Orion |date=23 March 2015 |title=Art Review: 200 Words: Sarah Hobbs at the Carson McCullers Center in Columbus |url=http://burnaway.org/review/200-words-sarah-hobbs-carson-mccullers-center-columbus/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160627011622/http://burnaway.org/review/200-words-sarah-hobbs-carson-mccullers-center-columbus/ |archive-date=27 June 2016 |work=Burnaway}}
• 2013 Looking Forward: Gifts of Contemporary Art from the Patricia A. Bell Collection, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey
• 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{{Cite web |date= |title=Top 50 - Critical Mass 2011 |url=https://www.photolucida.org/critical-mass/top-50/,%20https://www.photolucida.org/critical-mass/top-50/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521202316/https://www.photolucida.org/critical-mass/top-50/?event_id=13&legacy=true |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Photolucida |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date= |title=Artist Detail - Sarah Hobbs |url=https://www.photolucida.org/artist-detail/,%20https://www.photolucida.org/artist-detail/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521202655/https://www.photolucida.org/artist-detail/?cmid=3580 |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Photolucida |language=en-US}}
• 2011 "Sarah Hobbs: Out of Mind," Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (solo){{Cite news |last=Shaw |first=Kurt |date=20 February 2011 |title=Artist's photos lets spaces speak volumes |id={{ProQuest|852839340}} |quote=...15 massive photographs fill Silver Eye Center for Photography....they are the work of Sarah Hobbs of Atlanta... |agency=McClatchy - Tribune Business News}}{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=21 January 2011 |title=Sarah Hobbs @ Silver Eye |url=https://www.fstopmagazine.com/blog/2011/sarah-hobbs-silver-eye/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521201018/https://www.fstopmagazine.com/blog/2011/sarah-hobbs-silver-eye/ |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=F-Stop Magazine |language=en}}
• 2008–2010 "Slightly Unbalanced," with work from Sophie Calle, Mike Kelly, Bruce Nauman, Sarah Hobbs, et al., Independent Curators International, Traveling Exhibition{{Cite news |last=Foumberg |first=Jason |date=5 May 2008 |title=Slightly Unbalanced |url=https://www.frieze.com/article/slightly-unbalanced |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230928044223/https://www.frieze.com/article/slightly-unbalanced |archive-date=28 September 2023 |access-date=21 May 2024 |work=Frieze |language=en |issue=115 |issn=0962-0672}}{{Cite web |date=2008 |title=Exhibitions - Slightly Unbalanced |url=https://curatorsintl.org/exhibitions/9159-slightly-unbalanced |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231210052837/https://curatorsintl.org/exhibitions/9159-slightly-unbalanced |archive-date=10 December 2023 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Independent Curators International |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Matthew Ryan |date=Jul 2009 |title=Songs of the Self: Slightly Unbalanced |journal=Fuse |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=34-36 |issn=0838-603X |id={{ProQuest|219946299}}}}
• 2007 "On the Scene: Kota Ezawa, Sarah Hobbs, Angela Strassheim," Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois{{Cite web |title=Artists - Sarah Hobbs |url=https://photography-now.com/artist/sarah-hobbs |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207132452/https://photography-now.com/artist/sarah-hobbs |archive-date=7 December 2022 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=photography-now.com}}{{Cite web |title=Indecisiveness, from the series Small Problems in Living - 1999 - Sarah Hobbs |url=https://www.artic.edu/artworks/184299/indecisiveness-from-the-series-small-problems-in-living |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521195629/https://www.artic.edu/artworks/184299/indecisiveness-from-the-series-small-problems-in-living |archive-date=21 May 2024 |access-date=21 May 2024 |website=Art Institute of Chicago |quote=Exhibition History: Art Institute of Chicago, 'On the Scene: Kota Ezawa, Sarah Hobbs, Angela Strassheim,' May 19-September 3, 2007. (Katherine A. Bussard)}}
• 2006 "Sarah Hobbs: Does This Sound Like You?" Solomon Projects, Atlanta, Georgia (solo){{Cite news |last=Cullum |first=Jerry |date=18 June 2006 |title=Picture-perfect scenes filled with inside jokes |work=The Atlanta Journal - Constitution |pages=L.12. |issn=1539-7459 |id={{ProQuest|337262554}}}}
• 2004 Small Problems in Living, Yossi Milo Gallery, New York, New York{{Cite web |date=November 2004 |title=Small Problems in Living |url=https://www.yossimilo.com/exhibitions/sara-hobb-2004-11 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526182411/https://www.yossimilo.com/exhibitions/sara-hobb-2004-11 |archive-date=26 May 2020 |website=Yossi Milo Gallery}}

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Category:1970 births

Category:Living people

Category:People from Lynchburg, Virginia

Category:Photographers from Virginia

Category:University of Georgia alumni

Category:21st-century American women photographers

Category:21st-century American photographers