“I see pride in my people all the time when I’m out on the street talking to them, and I wanted the rest of the country to see what I was seeing.” 

Naomi Hobson, 2022

In her first major photographic solo exhibition in NSW, Southern Kaantju/Umpila artist Naomi Hobson will present a newly commissioned, immersive photographic exhibition at Cement Fondu. Renowned for her vibrant paintings, this new commission gives Hobson the opportunity to further develop her work with photography, her engagement with Country and concerns with contemporary identity, gender and representation. The new, immersive, large-scale body of work will expand from her 2019 series Adolescent Wonderland, which was celebrated at the Tarnanthi exhibition, AGSA and was recently acquired by QAGOMA.

Adolescent Wonderland strikingly captures Hobson’s local community, recording the young people of the small remote community Coen, through a playful, deeply intimate and sometimes surreal lens. 

Hobson’s new commission at Cement Fondu is the third and final installment of Adolescent Wonderland, and comes at a critical time for the artist to continue this exploration into the cross pollination of popular and Aboriginal cultures that shape her community’s identities and relation to the world. The colours and shapes from Hobson’s paintings have been interpreted across the gallery walls in a mural by artists Noni Cragg and Natalie Naksila.