PAT HOBAUGH
Counter Culture
Elements of pop culture come to life with witty, often humorous commentary laced within the playful paintings of Pat Hobaugh. Still lifes of objects present throughout American pop cultural history— action figures, cartoon characters, real-life icons—are juxtaposed in his paintings in ways that are both enigmatic and thought-provoking. A tiny figure of Homer Simpson holding the famed pink sprinkled doughnut stands next to a tower of doughnuts with Buddha perched at the top in Nirvana with Sprinkles. In another painting, Pop Art, an action figure version of Andy Warhol sits in an eight-pack of Pepsi with pop art illustration adorning the front of the pack.
“I always want to make work that you need to think about,” says Hobaugh. “There’s the first read, which is humorous, or the viewer may be drawn to the realism.
Then there’s a layer of how my still lifes relate to the history of the genre, and our relationship to pop culture. Finally, there’s the layer of meaning, which is the concept behind that particular painting. All of this is meant to create more questions than answers for the viewer, so that they can really spend time with the work.”
Hobaugh’s first solo exhibition with Canyon Road Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, runs August 9 to 18. Titled Counter Culture: Still Lifes of Americana, the show will have an opening reception on the first night from 5 to 7 p.m.
“The work for this upcoming show is a continuation of what I’ve been doing, but I like to react to current events and trends, so there will be some of that included. For example, the recent closing of Toys R Us and the upcoming presidential primaries,” says Hobaugh.
The artist elaborates on his acrylic and oil piece Pop Art.“Pop Art has references to Warhol, Lichtenstein, Johns, Haring, Banksy and Richard Hamilton. Beyond the initial ‘ha-ha’ Pepsi pop art connection, the deeper concept in the painting is in letting the viewer interpret the juxtaposition of these art icons to the vintage, distressed, red/white/blue Pepsi carton, leading them to think about how old this once fresh, contemporary movement now is and how my work is reevaluating what some of these artists were doing through the filter of still life and our continual obsession as a culture with ‘pop,’ new objects/fads/etc.”
In Super Blues, three different generations of Superman figures are sprawled across the composition. A large vase of blue flowers is positioned in the center, and what appears to be a miniscule Lex Luthor stands below it facing the oldest of the Supermans. “I started by using every blue pigment that I own in this composition...At first glance it looks like Lex Luthor is holding out kryptonite to Superman, but I actually used a Daddy Warbucks figure as a Lex Luthor stand-in, so under the Daddy Warbucks reading the kryptonite is meant to be seen as an emerald/ riches, and Superman is being tempted by money to ‘sell out’, and as this Superman action figure was made in 1978, the year I was born, he’s also being a stand-in for me.” Hobaugh says that while the spark that ignites inspiration for a piece can shift from day to day, there’s a consistent, slow-burning desire to break from the norm, especially having come from the rural Midwest. As a collective whole, he says, he hopes his works are taken as his attempt at a “great American novel.” “I think all artists, visual or otherwise, are like the Sun,” he says. “They’re full of a creativity source, like the Sun is full of hydrogen and helium atoms, and it just has to burst out of you until the end.”