Ania Hobson presents her third solo exhibition with SETAREH titled Bird, featuring a new series of paintings that expand on her ongoing interest in spatial dynamics, figuration, and environment.
In these works, Hobson turns her focus to the sky as a compositional and narrative element. Stylized figures are set against vibrant blue and yellow skies, rendered in soft, luminous tones that give the illusion of atmospheric depth and movement beyond the edges of the frame.
“Bird” refers to the recurring presence of birds in the paintings as figures that appear both above the horizon line and within the grounded scenes. Through their placement, Hobson links distinct areas of the pictorial space, blurring the boundaries between figure and ground, foreground and background. The sky, no longer a passive backdrop, becomes an active subject that is mutable, expressive, and central to the emotive power of the works.
In "Bird", Ania Hobson continues to expand upon ideas from her previous solo exhibition at SETAREH, "Deep-Rooted" (2023*) which presented expansive landscapes and the forest as a compositional playground. Trees were treated as living subjects, giving the boldness that Hobson is known for to the paintings and discovering how environment can influence the characterization of figures. Hobson has steadily made the environment an element that carries narrative, story and personality.
"Bird" is a confrontation of nature with a gaze that beholds its qualities and wonders, from its creatures to its fauna and flora. In Hobson’s works, colors are brightened and saturated to highlight nature’s inward and outward appearance. The effect of nature’s constant interconnectedness is reflected in Hobson’s ability to bounce themes and concepts from one canvas to another in this new exhibition. In "Bird", Hobson infuses her works with a new atmosphere, made radiant, sometimes golden and even turbulent, like an ever-changing sky.
