In a few days, the exhibition Currents 39: LaToya M. Hobbs, Carving Out Time opens at the Museum. As a curator, I’m often asked how I decide to show an artist’s work. With LaToya M. Hobbs, I saw Scene 5: The Studio, the last scene in her woodcut series Carving Out Time, in 2021 in Minneapolis, and it brought me to a stop. The awe I felt at its sheer scale was quickly followed by my appreciation for the significance of the subject matter and the technical virtuosity required to make a print that large and detailed. I went back to it multiple times before leaving the exhibition, which had been curated by Milwaukee-based Tanekeya Word, founder of the Black Women of Print collective. I was determined to acquire it for the Museum.
Representation really matters
Latoya M. Hobbs
The five 8-by-12-foot scenes that comprise Carving Out Time depict a typical day for Hobbs as an artist, wife, and mother balancing priorities and different forms of work. This series is powerfully intimate and relatable. Hobbs immerses us in her family’s routine by capturing each scene with incredible depth and texture. Among the items scattered throughout the work are toys and books. Hobbs’s two sons chose several objects they wanted her to include. Involving them in the process was important: “Representation really matters,” says Hobbs, explaining that seeing themselves in museums would help her sons feel more comfortable accessing these spaces in the future. She also alludes in the series to artists who inspired her career, referencing work by Margaret Burroughs, Elizabeth Catlett, Kerry James Marshall, and Alma Thomas. With this approach, she foregrounds Black artists and their contributions to expanding who is represented in art history and museums.
Hobbs originally conceived of Carving Out Time as a set of carved wooden panels. During the process of planning the work, however, Hobbs’s husband, Ariston Jacks, convinced her to make woodcut prints from the panels. The woodcuts, especially at their scale, are artistically and historically significant. This exhibition presents the prints and panels together for the first time. The prints, which we recently acquired for the Museum’s collection, will remain in Milwaukee. I’m eager for everyone to experience the wonder of standing before LaToya M. Hobbs’s work.
Learn more about the exhibition and related programs at mam.org/latoya-hobbs.
Currents 39: LaToya M. Hobbs, Carving Out Time
Bradley Family Gallery
Sept 6, 2024–Jan 5, 2025
Member Preview, Sept 5
Gallery Talk, Sept 12
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Ellen and James Flesch
Katharine and Sandy Mallin
Milwaukee Art Museum’s African American Art Alliance
Milwaukee Art Museum’s Contemporary Art Society
Milwaukee Art Museum’s Print Forum
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Image: LaToya M. Hobbs, Scene 5: The Studio (detail), from the series Carving Out Time, 2020–21. Purchase, with funds from the Lucia K. Stern Trust, Kevin Fahey and Ray Grzebielski Fund, Cory and Michelle Nettles, the African American Art Alliance, Brewers Community Foundation, angela and Virgis Colbert, Print Forum, and Gregory and Lisa Wesley,
M2023.282.5a-c. Image courtesy of LaToya M. Hobbs, Artist, and Ariston Jacks, Photographer.