Nicky Hoberman – Girl Power
8 november till 20 december 2008 

Paint as disguise
These depictions of girls with large, out-sized faces and knowing expressions, force the viewer to engage. The works investigate concepts of isolation, identity and individuality.
The girls inhabit a world where all is dissociated; nomatter how close they are physically to each other, there is never any emotional connection. Their gaze asks for attention while avoiding interaction. The composite, larger images intentionally shift perspectives and postures to reinforce this sence of total dislocation. The expansive paintings draw the onlooker into the picture, and although the figures are over-scaled, there is an intimacy to their presence.
Free-floating prepubescent girls knowingly look at the viewer, and one can not avoid their stare. At the same time, they show a stronger inward than outward gaze. The sitters seem to be asking for attention, but wanting to avoid interaction. They exhibit a range of attitudes from playful to serious, ordinary to mysterious, and engaged to disinterested. Smooth, selfdisguising blurred brush marks or pastel on tracing paper mimic snap-shots and create a coolness to belie the emotional intensity of the work.
 
 
Born in South Africa in 1967, Nicky Hoberman graduated from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London to become recognized as one of Britain's foremost figurative artists. Since 1996 she has exhibited in numerous galleries and museums worldwide like f.e. the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Whitechapel Project Space, London, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Saatchi Gallery, London and Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden. Her paintings and drawings are admitted into amongst others the following collections: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, The Berado Collection, Museum of Modern Art, Sintra, Portugal, Magasin 3, Stockholm, Sweden, The Walsall Museum and Art Gallery, Walsall (UK), Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Osaka in Japan, Saatchi Collection, London, the Scheringa Museum of Realist Art, the Netherlands and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA. Hoberman was featured in "The New Neurotic Realism," published by the Saatchi Gallery. A monograph on her work was published by Gabrius.
 
Hoberman lives and works in London (UK).