Two Headed Diver: Lynne Hobaica & Rickie Barnett

May 11, 2024 - November 2, 2024 | Schaefer Gallery

Lynne Hobaica and Rickie Barnett, Roly Poly - On Precious Earth, 2023, stoneware

Rickie Barnett, Woodland Critter, 2024, wood, acrylic, felt

Two Headed Diver: Lynne Hobaica and Rickie Barnett is an exhibition in three entangled parts, featuring the individual yet mutually-informed studio practices of Lynne Hobaica, Rickie Barnett, and their collaborative work under the moniker “Two Headed Diver.” Their characters—often simultaneously fantastic and mundane—are produced through a heady concoction of personal myth-making, morality tale, and a distinct sense of New World wonder.

Lynne Hobaica, Garden of Earthly Chi-lights, 2023, porcelain, earthenware, mixed media

Both artists’ work is driven by narrative, though their singular approaches to storytelling are often pleasantly obscured by layered surface treatments and enigmatic symbology. Hobaica’s work utilizes recurring patterns and decorative elements to elevate seemingly humble or alien subjects—chihuahuas and antlered beasts seen here, for example. While gauzy glazes and sheer fabrics shroud her characters in a fog that reinforces an almost mythological interpretation of them. Working in both ceramic and textile, Hobaica’s compositions prioritize the inexplicability of the human experience.

Barnett’s figurative sculptures, while less ambiguous in their surface treatment, are just as wonderfully confounding. Often rendered in gravity-defying arrangements or seemingly comical isolation, the characters populating his tableaus represent the lessons of folktales and a life lived in all its comedy and trauma. When Barnett’s and Hobaica’s sensibilities are brought together in a single object, their intuitive and deeply collaborative approach to shared making crystallizes their complementary humor and empathy. The results are acutely humane observations of the prosaic that encourage observation and, hopefully, a mutual vulnerability with the viewer.

---