Counter Culture

Elements of pop culture come to life with witty, often humorous commentary laced within the playful paintings of Pat Hobaugh.

Still lifes of objects present throughout American pop-cultural history— action figures, cartoon characters, real-life icons—are juxtaposed in his paintings in ways that are both enigmatic and thought-provoking. A tiny figure of Homer Simpson holding the famed pink sprinkled doughnut stands next to a tower of doughnuts with Buddha perched at the top in Nirvana with Sprinkles. In another painting, Pop Art, an action figure version of Andy Warhol sits in an eight-pack of Pepsi with pop art illustration adorning the front of the pack.

“I always want to make work that you need to think about,” says Hobaugh. “There’s the first read, which is humorous, or the viewer may be drawn to the realism. Then there’s a layer of how my still lifes relate to the history of the genre, and our relationship to pop culture. Finally, there’s the layer of meaning, which is the concept behind that particular painting. All of this is meant to create more questions than answers for the viewer, so that they can really spend time with the work.”