SAMANTHA HOBSON
Born: May 4 1981
Language group: Kuuku 'Ya'
Location: Lockhart River
Samantha Hobson was born in 1981 at Lockhart River, Cape York, the northern most settlement of Eastern Australia. She began painting with the Lockhart River Art Gang at the age of 17, producing paintings of the land and reef that surround her traditional land.
Her early paintings of visceral abstraction represented the violence and dysfunction of remote communities, while her follow up series of fire paintings, although literal, also engaged as a metaphor regarding the cataclysmic effects of violence in the community on the edge of paradise. More recently, the land and reef of spawning coral have been explored.
Samantha held her first solo show in Brisbane in 2000 and has since exhibited extensively both in Australia and internationally. She has recently left the Lockhart River community and paints independently from her studio and home in Cairns.
Education
Certificate of Visual Arts (ASTI) Cairns TAFE
Attended fine art print workshop run by Yvonne Boag (1999), Gary Shead (1998), Theo Tremblay (1999), Guy Warren (1999)
Solo ExhibitionS
2006 Land to Sea, Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane
2005 From My Country…Land and Sea, Vivien Anderson Gallery,.Melbourne
2004 Yuma Kuyi Pi’l Fire and water, Vivien Anderson Gallery. Melbourne
2003 'Kalmaa-na Waympa Wimpa (From the Bush to the Sand Beach)', Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane
2003 'Lanthalantha (Fire)', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2002 'Yuku Untana (Fuel for the Fire)', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2001 'ee be right b'um bye', Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2000 'From the Top', Andrew Baker Art Dealer, Brisbane
Group Exhibitions
2006 Uncharted Territory, October Gallery, London, England
2006 Histoires de Terre et Mer: Peintures Aborigènes de Lockhart River, Australie, Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie du Morbihan, Lorient, France
2006 The Cairns NAIDOC Exhibition 2006: shifting tides, moving sands, Tanks Art Centre, Cairns
2005 The Cairns NAIDOC Exhibition 2005: Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art and Crafts from Tropical North Queensland, Tanks Art Centre, Cairns
2005 Kungkay: Lockhart River Art Gang, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, NT
2005 Big Country, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
2004 Colour Power: Aboriginal Art post 1984, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2004 Lockhart River Artists, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2004 Divas of the Desert, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
2003 Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
2003 Beneath the Monsoon: Visions North of Capricorn, Artspace Mackay, Cairns Regional Gallery, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery (Townsville)
2003 Water: Prints from Lockhart River and the Tiwi Islands, Queensland University of Technology Art Museum, Brisbane
2003 Artworks from FNQ + Torres Strait Islands, Artworkers Alliance, Brisbane
2003 The Women's Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne
2003 Ngaachi Ngampula (Our Country), Hogarth Galleries, Sydney
2003 Lockhart River Gang, Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs
2002 Lines II, Fire-Works Gallery, Brisbane
2002 Inaugural exhibition, Aboroginal and Torres Strait Islander Galleriy, Ian Potter Musuem of Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2001 Dreamtime: Zeitgenössische Aboriginal Art/ The Dark and The Light: 18 May - 9 September 2001, Kunst Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg/Wien, Austria
2000 Lockhart River Print Exhibition, Cairns Regional Gallery Parma Belong Sandbeach: Paintings and prints by Lockhart River Art Gang; Queensland Aboriginal Creations, Brisbane
1999 Message Stick, touring exhibition of the Lockhart River Art Gang, funded by Visions Australia
International Works on Paper Fair, Sydney
Lockhart River Art Gang Exhibition, Aboriginal Creations, Brisbane
Awards
2001 Second prize; Painting, Laura Festival, Queensland
Second prize, works on paper, Laura Festival, Queensland
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
National Gallery of Victoria
Queensland Art Gallery. Brisbane
Cairns Regional Gallery
Private collections USA, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia
The Nahum Collection, London
Bibliography
Allen, Felicity, Young Talent is Burning Bright, The Big Picture, The Herald Sun, May 26, 2004
Allen, Felicity, Flames Spark a Bright Idea, The Herald Sun, June 18, 2003
Allen, Felicity, Fighting Spirit, The Sun herald, Mon April 13 2001
Anderson, Peter, Galleries, The Courier Mail, 31 May, 2001
Brown, Phil, Big Impressions: Indigenous images go on show in a collection of prints from northern artists, Brisbane News, 16-22 April 2003
Burbidge, Madeline, The Art Gang, Arts Yarn Up, winter 2000, Australia Council for the Arts
Burnett, David and Johnson, Trish, Sharing Culture-Story Place: Indigenous Art of Cape York and the Rainforest, Antiques & Art in Queensland, March to July 2003
Butler, Sally, Start Now! A Guide to the Aboriginal Art Market: North Queensland & the Torres Strait Islands Australian Art Collector, Issue 13 July September 2000
Clifton, Tony, A Hot Commodity With a 30,000 Year Lineage, The New York Times, April 24, 2003
Dreamtime: Zeitgenössische Aboriginal Art/ The Dark and The Light: 18 May - 9 September 2001, Kunst Gegenwart, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuburg/Wien, Austria
Finnane, Kieran, Review, Alice Springs News, May 21, 2003
Lockhart River Art Gang; The Message Stick: Art from North Queensland's Lockhart River Aboriginal Community, 1999, (exh cat)
McCulloch - Uehlin, Susan, Watermarks, The Weekend Australian, Review, 21 - 22 July 2001
Maier, Heidi, Travelling North, The Courier Mail, 15 February 2003
Martin-Chew, Louise, Mastery of Medium and Matter, The Australian, 26 May 2001
Prior, Cathy, River Artists Run with Inspiration, The Australian, 19 December 2001
Ryan, Judith, Colour Power: Aboriginal art post 1984 in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Victoria, 2004, (exh cat)