NICK HOBBS
Out There Somewhere
October 18th - Extended through December 21st, 2024
Storage APT
On The Bowery
Please email info@storageartgallery.com for exhibition address
Storage APT is pleased to present Out There Somewhere, a solo exhibition by Nick Hobbs (b. 1997). The work in Out There Somewhere reflects on the relationship between terrestrial observers and the vast unknown. Heavily influenced by a lifetime of looking through telescopes as an amateur astronomer, Hobbs’ drawings capture the wonder and mystery of those experiences. Out There Somewhere will be on view from October 18th and is extended through December 21st, 2024, at Storage APT.
Hobbs’ intricate pencil drawings explore the blending of the familiar and the cosmic. These works draw inspiration from the telescopic gaze—where the gentle light of faraway stars and planets, like the fine marks of a pencil, accumulate to reveal the faint yet weighty images of the universe. With methodical care, layered strokes, and soft gradients, these drawings capture the tension between intimacy and vastness, inviting viewers into a meditative space that mimics the experience of stargazing.
Hobbs’ work embraces a slow and patient process, much like the way celestial objects often reveal themselves over time through research and curiosity. His dense layers of graphite on heavy watercolor paper create velvety surfaces rich in texture and depth, lending an almost metallic quality. The drawings’ delicate balance of smooth gradients and sharp contrasts emphasizes the relationship between scale and subject matter. The result is a body of work that feels at once familiar and otherworldly, grounded in the medium of drawing but reaching out toward the unknown.
Out There Somewhere invites viewers to contemplate their place in the cosmos and consider the delicate connections between the small and the infinite, the known and the unknowable. Out There Somewhere will open on Friday, October 18th, with a reception on Wednesday, October 23rd, from 6-8pm, at Storage APT.
Exhibition Review by David Hiroshi Jager
“Storage APT is a boutique art space adjunct to the main gallery tucked onto the Bowery. It is the ideal venue for Mr. Hobbs’s intimate, photorealistic drawings, small miracles of graphite legerdemain that evoke black and white photography as much as they do cinema.”
“Some have distinctly whimsical subject matter, such as the legs and feet of a woman walking a whippet through a city. Another of a skyscraper in forced, nearly Bauhaus, perspective from below, by contrast, is practically formalist. They are disorienting in perspective, style, and approach, even with their apparently uniform patina of technical perfection.”
Artist Q & A
Nick Hobbs (b. 1997) shares with Storage about his studio practice and current interests.
Storage: How does your background or personal experiences influence your art?
Nick Hobbs: Long before I thought of myself as an artist, I was an amateur astronomer. It kept me in a constant awareness of a cosmological context that’s easy to take for granted otherwise. It also taught me patience and instilled a love for dark and quiet. I still work primarily at night, it feels familiar from those years when I’d stay up all night with a telescope.
S: How do you know when a work is complete? What signals you that you are at your stopping point?
NH: Often I’m limited by the wear of the paper. Every pencil stroke wears down the tooth on the surface until eventually it becomes too dull and smooth to receive anymore graphite. I have to plan for that unavoidable deadline, which is good because I might pick at a drawing forever if I could.
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Opening Reception
6-8pm
Wednesday, October 23, 2024Please email info@storageartgallery.com to RSVP.
Artist Hours
2-6pm
November 13th, 16th, & 22ndPlease stop by our space on The Bowery to meet the artist and view the exhibition.
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Nick Hobbs was born in 1997 in Shreveport, LA, and currently resides in New York, NY. He participated in the Undergraduate Residency Program at the New York Academy of Art (2018) and earned a BFA from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, LA (2020). Hobbs received his MFA from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR (2023). His work is heavily influenced by a lifetime of looking through telescopes as an amateur astronomer, with his intricate pencil drawings reflecting the wonder and mystery of the universe.
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Following Director Onyedika Chuke’s first two endeavors–Storage Projects Bowery (2020) and Storage Tribeca (2022)–Storage APT is conceived and renovated to serve as a deeply intimate, lesser-commercial, setting that highlights artists within the orbit of Storage Tribeca. Located three blocks from Cooper Union, Storage APT continues the strong tradition of cultural and conceptual inquiry that Chuke was immersed in during his time at the school. Storage APT is aimed at fostering a warm space where works are presented at a living, human scale and where community is cultivated through artist talks, dinners, and experimental projects.