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Tennessee native Hamlett Dobbins employs painting and abstraction to process experiences of pure consciousness. Constructing images from basic shapes and colors allowed him to connect with his feelings in a physical way, discovering truths and narrating meaning behind once indescribable sensations. Reflecting raw emotional energy, his paintings inspire the viewer to move from simply seeing to deeper perception and mindfulness.

The artist received his BFA from the University of Memphis and his MFA from the University of Iowa. Additionally, Dobbins has taught at University of Mississippi, Memphis College of Art, University of Iowa, University of Memphis and at Rhodes College. He ran an alternative exhibition space called Material and worked as a curator at Delta Axis @ Marshall Arts as well as Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College. In 2000 he received a fellowships and residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art. He has received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and ArtsMemphis. He has shown his work throughout the region and nationally. In 2013 he was awarded the Rome Prize and spent eleven months as a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. He now teaches Foundation Studies at the University of Memphis, in Tennessee where he lives with his two children, Milla and Ives.

Education

1999 University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, Master of Fine Arts.
1998 University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, Master of Arts.
1993 University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee, Bachelor of Fine Arts.

Exhibitions

2019
What You Know, You Know, (one person show), David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
I Will Have to Tell You Everything, (one person show), Whitespace, Atlanta, Georgia.
2018
Chaos and Information curated by Mark Scala, Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee traveling to Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia.  (catalog)
2017
Drawing Performance, organized by James Bockelman, (Old Man Study Group collaborations with Douglas Degges), Marxhausen Gallery of Art, Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska and Inga Kondeyne Galerie, Berlin, Germany.
Mellow Mountain Coalition: All the Pain on the Inside (collaboration with Tad Lauritzen Wright), Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art, Piedmont College, Demorest, Georgia.Mellow Mountain Coalition: Caboose! (collaboration with Tad Lauritzen Wright), Chattanooga, Tennessee.I Will Have to Tell You Everything, (one person show), David Lusk Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee.
2016
I Will Have to Tell You Everything, (one person show), David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
Sant’Ivo, (one person show), Medicine Factory, Memphis, Tennessee.
The Attendant, (one person show), Gatewood Gallery, University of North Carolina Greensboro.
2015
The Attendant (one person show), The Martha and Robert Fogelman Galleries of Contemporary Art, University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
Soft Eyes, organized by Pete Schulte, Whitespace Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia.
Old Man Study Group, (Collaborations with Douglas Degges), Southfork Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
Untitled (for A.J.F.), (one person show), Glitch, Memphis, Tennessee.
Lovey Town: We Got Spirit, Yes We Do, Organized by Michael Velliquette, Unity Gallery, Fairfield, Iowa.
Mellow Mountain Coalition: Born to Hula, (Collaborations with Tad Lauritzen Wright), Glitch, Memphis, Tennessee.
2014
The Attendant, (one person show), David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
Concrete Ghosts / Fantasma Concreto, organized by Christian Caliandro, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy.
2013
The Wellspring, (one person show), University of Mississippi Museum, Oxford, Mississippi.
The River Beneath Us, (one person show), Leu Art Gallery, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee.
All My Rowdy Friends, The Rozelle Warehouse, Memphis, Tennessee.
Co-Lab, (Collaborations with Tad Lauritzen Wright), Nu Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
Critology, Curated by Ron Laboray, The Fine Art Museum at the Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University, North Carolina.
Present Tense: The Art of Memphis, 2001-Now, Curated by John Weeden, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee.
2012
Bred and Fed, Martos Gallery’s Shoot the Lobster, Organized by Mary Grace Wright, Benton Street Gallery, Iowa City, Iowa.
Today’s Visual Language: South Abstraction, A Fresh Look, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile, Alabama.
The Price is Right, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
2011
The Price is Right, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
Memphis Connection: A Show of Collaborative Work, Organized by Dwayne Butcher, Marshall Arts, Memphis, Tennessee.
2010
We Like Each Other, Marxhausen Gallery of Art, Concordia University, Seward, Nebraska.
The River Beneath Us (one person show), David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
2009
Tinker, Tailer, Sifter: Spies! Gallery 130, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi.
Touch Faith, organized by Jeffrey Courtland Jones, SEMANTICS, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Jettison: New Ideas in Abstraction, Trahern Gallery, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee.
Summer Show, Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland, Oregon.
Tennessee Abstraction, organized by Adam McCoy, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee.
2008
Every One, Every Day (one person show), Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee.
Every One, Every Day (one person show), University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
Good Morning Milla, (one person show), Fuel Room, Power House Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
2007
Class of ’07, Lantana Projects, Memphis, Tennessee.
Every One Every Day (one person show), David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
Tablet: Contemporary Southern Painting, Organized by SEED through the Tanner-Hill Gallery, Chattanooga, Tennessee
2006
Class of ’06, Lantana Projects, Memphis, Tennessee.
Place as Muse, Space 301, Mobile, Alabama.Color, Space 301, Mobile, Alabama.
Everyone (one person show), Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee.
Early Morning Paintings (one person show), CAP Gallery, Frist Center for Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee.
Early Morning Paintings (one person show), Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana.
2005
Early Morning Paintings (one person show), David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
MAX:  2005, curated by David Moos, Art Museum at University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
New Currents in Regional Painting organized by Brian Bishop for the Sarah Moody Gallery, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa.
2004
Paradise or Parking Lot, (two person show), Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, Augusta, Georgia.
Early Morning Paintings, (one person show), Tennessee Arts Commission, Nashville, Tennessee.
Suburban Abstraction, organized by Barbara Campbell, Lump Gallery, Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Stillness of Skin (one person show), Freed-Hardeman University, Henderson, Tennessee.
Under Run, organized by Julia Marsh, Dogmatic Gallery, Chicago, Illinois.
2003
Switchyard, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
Marshall Abstraction, Fugitive Art Space, Nashville, Tennessee.
The Stillness of Skin (one person show), Art Museum University of Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
2002
Now Serving, Art in General, New York, New York.
A Century of Progress: Twentieth Century Painting in Tennessee, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee.
The Stillness of Skin (one person show), Temporary Contemporary Gallery, Cheekwood Museum of Art, Nashville, Tennessee.
Side by Side, Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee.
The Memphis Connection, Kunstruimte40, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
The Invention of a New Star (one person show), Art Museum, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.
2001
Featured Emerging Artist, 2001Invitational Art Exhibit, Arts in the Park, Memphis, Tennessee.
Omaha Paintings (one person show), Second Floor Contemporary, Memphis, Tennessee.
MAX: 2001, All About Paint, University of Memphis Art Museum, Memphis, Tennessee. Holly Block, curator.
dh-hd, Artfarm Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
We Like Each Other, Armstrong Gallery, Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa.
2000
notfromhere, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska.
The Price is Right, David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee.
From the Story of the Rose (one person show), Iowa Gallery, Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
1999
Young Memphis, Clough-Hanson Gallery, Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee.
Arts in the Park, Memphis Tennessee. Jerry Saltz juror.
This is Always Finished, 7th Floor Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin.
Road Trip, New Work from the University of Iowa, Fassbender Gallery Annex, Chicago, Illinois.
M.F.A. Show, University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa.
Tuesday Night Collaborative Drawing Group, Reservoir Space, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
1998
Each Child’s Story Illuminates the Others’, Arts Iowa City, Iowa City, Iowa.
Five Days, Five Shows (one person show), Eve Drewlowe Gallery, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

Awards and Residencies

2014
ArtsAccelerator Grant, ArtsMemphis
2013-2014
Fellow, The Jules Guerin Rome Prize in Visual Arts, American Academy in Rome, Italy
2010
Nominated for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant
2009
Nominated for the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant
2003
Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant
2000
Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant
Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, three month residency, Omaha, Nebraska.
Vermont Studio Center, four week fellowship, Johnson, Vermont.
1999
Best of Show, Arts in the Park Juried Show, Jerry Saltz, juror.
1998-1999
Pelzer-Lynch Fellowship for Graduate Students in Painting. University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

Reviews and Press

Art Papers
Susan Knowles, Review of Early Morning Paintings at David Lusk Gallery, page 48, November/December 2005.
Burnaway
Erica Ciccarone, Hamlett Dobbins and Douglas Degges on Artistic Collaboration, June 19, 2015.
Joe Nolan, All About Me, January 10, 2017
Commercial Appeal
Fredric Keoppel, Abstracts Peer into Realms both Microscopic, Cosmic, Sept 23, 2016.
Fredric Keoppel, Hamlett Dobbins at Fogelman Gallery, August 26, 2015.
Fredric Keoppel, Hamlett Dobbins at David Lusk Gallery, March 20, 2014.
Fredric Keoppel, Dobbins Probes Limits of Abstraction, Sept 10, 2010.
Fredric Keoppel, Year’s Top Art Exhibitions, Playbook, Dec 28, 2007.
Fredric Keoppel, Beauty is in the Eye of Artful Dobbins, Playbook, Oct 5, 2007.
Dateline Memphis – John Weeden, Focus on Hamlett Dobbins, January 15, 1999.
GAMUT – Meikle Gardner, iD Hamlett Dobbins, June issue, 2002.
The Memphis Flyer
Chris Davis, Material Man, July 11, 2013.
Carol Knowles, First Light, page 34, July 21-27, 2005.
Chris Davis, Material Man, page 31, December 9, 2004.
Nashville Scene
Joe Nolan, In the Abstract, August 8, 2013.
David Maddox, Hillsbroro Village Blues, June 29, 2006.
Julie Roberts, Building Blocks, August 5, 2004.
New Art Examiner – David McCarthy, Studio Visit, February 2000.
Number:  An Independent Journal of the Arts 
Carrie McGee, Hamlett Dobbins:  Early Morning Paintings, pages 16-17, Fall 2005.
Terry Thacker, Long Live the Death of Modernism: The Practice of Thomas Nozkowski, Hamlett Dobbins, and Greely Myatt, pages 10-11, Summer 2003