Naomi Hobson facts for kids

Naomi Hobson, born in 1979, is an amazing Aboriginal Australian artist. She comes from the southern Kaantju and Umpila people in Lockhart River, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Naomi creates art using many different things like painting, photography, and ceramics. She started showing her art in galleries in 2013.

Naomi has won important art awards. In 2016, she won the Alice Prize, a big national art award for modern art. She also won the first-ever Cairns Indigenous Art Fair Photography Award in 2018. She has been a finalist for many other awards, like the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

Growing Up and Learning

Naomi Hobson was born in 1979 in Lockhart River, Queensland. She grew up in Coen, Queensland, which is also in Far North Queensland. The beautiful nature around her inspired her art from a young age. Her grandfather gave her a special name, Yikan. This name comes from the hoop pine tree that grows in the McIlwraith Range mountains.

Her grandfather worked as a stockman for a white family. Both of Naomi's parents are Aboriginal Australians. Her mother is from the southern Kaantju people, and her father is Umpila. Her family has always been involved in important changes, like working for land rights. This helps bring social and economic benefits back to the traditional people of Coen.

Naomi's art shows her involvement in these changes. She expresses her culture, her land, and her identity through her artworks. She gets ideas from many cultures, like village life, farming, and even the busy cities of South East Asia.

Naomi studied different art and media courses:

• Certificate III in Multimedia, Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Cairns, 2002
• Multimedia studies, Canberra Institute of Technology, 2005
• Mainstream Visual Arts, Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE, Cairns, 2007

Art Career

Naomi Hobson started her art career in 2007.

Since 2013, she has had a solo exhibition almost every year. Her very first solo show was called I am Yikan. This show used her Indigenous name and explored who she was through bright colors and pictures of the Cape York Peninsula landscape. This exhibition at Alcaston Gallery in Fitzroy sold out. It was opened by Tony Burke, who was the Minister for Arts at the time. Naomi Hobson often shows her art at the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair.

In 2018, Naomi had her first international exhibition called New Beginnings. It was held in Singapore at the Redot Fine Art Gallery.

Naomi Hobson is represented by two art galleries: the Redot Art Gallery in Singapore and the Vivien Anderson Gallery in Melbourne.

Art Style and Themes

Naomi Hobson is a visual artist who uses many different materials. She works with painting, photography, and ceramics. She is known for her modern artworks that are full of bright colors and detailed shapes. These shapes often look like things found in nature.

Naomi paints about her father's country, which is the East coast of Cape York Peninsula in Northern Queensland. Her art is an abstract way of showing her culture and her family's history. She lives and works in the small town of Coen, where her family connections are very strong. The land features of the area, like the shapes of the McIlwraith Range mountains, the ocean, and the rivers, are often seen in her paintings.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

• 2013 – I am Yikan – Alcaston Gallery, Fitzroy, Victoria. This was Naomi's first solo show. It explored her connection to her traditional land near Coen.
• 2014 – Seven Sisters and the Bonefish Story – Depot II, Sydney, NSW.
• 2015 – Ngaachi Ngunama – Story Place – Alcaston Gallery, Vic.
• 2016 – Kanichi on Top People – Alcaston Gallery, Vic.
• 2017 – Time and Place: Naomi Hobson – Art Mob Aboriginal Fine Art, Hobart, Tas.; Alcaston Gallery, Vic.
• 2018 – Times Have Changed – Suzanne O'Connell Gallery. This show highlighted how her father's country was changing because of climate change. It helped people understand social and environmental changes related to global warming.
• 2018 – New Beginnings – Redot Fine Art Gallery, Singapore. This was Naomi's first international exhibition.
• 2019 – Body Politics: Contemporary Works from the Collection at Bendigo Art Gallery. This show included works from her 2018 photo series Warriors without a Weapon. It featured portraits of Indigenous men.
• 2019 and 2020/21 – Adolescent Wonderland, at the Cairns Art Gallery in 2019 and as part of Tarnanthi at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 2020/21. This photo series showed how Indigenous and popular culture mix in Coen. Teenagers chose their own poses for the photos.

Art in Collections

Naomi Hobson's artworks are held in important art collections across Australia:

• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
• Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
• Art Gallery of South Australia
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney
• State Library of Queensland

Awards and Recognition

Winner

• The Alice Prize, a national award for modern art, in 2016. She won for her painting "High Pine" (2015).
• Inaugural Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2018 Photography Award.

Finalist

• Sunshine Coast Art Prize
• Geelong Contemporary Art Prize
• Gold Coast Art Prize 2013, 2014
• 31st Telstra National Torres Strait Islander & Aboriginal Art Awards (NATSIAA), 2014, 2015, 2016

Personal Life

Naomi Hobson still lives on the riverbed where her grandparents were born. Her home is an old tin shed that used to be the village church.