065: Ania Hobson | Radio Juxtapoz

There is so much going on in the painting of Suffolk, UK-based painter, Ania Hobson. At first glance they are portraits, people posing, leaning, conversing, in bars, bedrooms and in cars. But there are escapists fantasies and sense of almost being misunderstood in each work, like a conversation gone awry or a secret being told. The colors are bold. The facial expressions are often intense or contemplative. And in the end, you are entering Hobson's world that teeters between a sense of reality and that of a distant daydream.   

After winning National Portrait Gallery’s BP Young Artist Award in 2018 for her work, "A Portrait of Two Female Painters," Hobson has been on the international radar as a new voice in contemporary portrait works. Her newest solo show at Catto Gallery in 2020 captured a mood we had all been experiencing: wishing for a bit of physical interaction in a year where every intimate was taking from us.   

On the newest episode of the Radio Juxtapoz podcast (and ahead of her feature in our Spring 2021 Quarterly edition), Hobson gives us the story of her earliest memories of a creative life, her almost haunted and incredible studio space in an old US army base in the countryside of England, a potential move to London, her new Polish citizenship and the stories of the people and places in her stunning works.

The Radio Juxtapoz podcast is hosted by FIFTH WALL TV's Doug Gillen and Juxtapoz editor, Evan Pricco. Episode 065 was recorded via Skype in San Francisco and England on February 10, 2021.