Evan Hobart, a California-based ceramics artist, creates beastly mixed-media creatures that offer commentary on both urban and social issues. Living in large urban areas inspires the artist to explore consumerism, global climate change, pollution, and “eventual extinction” in his sculptures. Hobart crafts cityscapes on and inside ceramic fossil heads, absorbing at different distances. In the works, “the imbalance between the innocents of the natural world and the chaotic blind dominance of humanity” is on display.
“It is an unsustainable lifestyle many of us live,” the artist says. “This deeply distresses me and compels me to comment on these often-deplorable conditions. I address these issues as a reflection of my position as participant and member of this society. The story-telling quality of my work aims to raise concern and awareness about these issues. My artwork marks a moment in history. It becomes a sort of time capsule for future generations. Like the bone carvings of the Inuit tribes, it depicts the culture that I come from, and honors the tradition of art making as historical record.”
With names like “Metropolidon” and “Frackasaurus,” there’s also a certain dark humor intended within some of the works. The artist says that he says the permanence of ceramics is “intrinsic” to these concepts.
