Hamlett Dobbins, director of the Clough-Hanson Gallery at Rhodes College, has been selected a 2013-14 Rome Prize Winner to attend theAmerican Academy in Rome, the premier American overseas center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities.
Each year, through a national competition, the Rome Prize is awarded to approximately 30 individuals who represent the highest standard of excellence in the arts and humanities. Prize recipients are invited to Rome for six months to two years to immerse themselves in the Academy community where they will enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to expand their own professional, artistic, or scholarly pursuits, drawing on their colleagues′ erudition and experience and on the inestimable resources that Italy, Europe, and the Academy have to offer.
Dobbins’ painting project is titled “Slow Time in Rome,” and he will spend 11 months in Rome. “As a fellow, I will be painting and responding to that amazing historic place and all of its splendor,” he says.
A native of Tennessee, Dobbins spent most of his life in Memphis where he received B.F.A. and M.A. degrees in art from The University of Memphis. He also holds an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. After completing his graduate studies, Dobbins moved back to Memphis where he worked as curator for Delta Axis @ Marshall Arts while teaching at The University of Memphis, University of Mississippi, and at Memphis College of Art.
In 2000, Dobbins received a fellowship for a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Va., as well as a three-month residency at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha, Neb. He has received grants from the Pollock Krasner Foundation as well as the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Individual Artists Grant.
He also has shown his work throughout the region as well as at Art in General in New York, NP40 in Amsterdam, Dogmatic in Chicago, and Lump Gallery in North Carolina. In addition, his work has appeared in New Art Examiner, Art Papersand Number.
Since 2001, Dobbins has served as the director for the Clough-Hanson Gallery and taught drawing, painting, and gallery management courses at Rhodes. In 2004, he founded a non-commercial alternative space called Material in the historic Broad Avenue neighborhood in Memphis.