THE ARTIST
Hopeton St. Clair Hibbert
Bio
Hopeton St. Clair Hibbert, Jr. (b. 1975) is an Atlanta-based intra-disciplinary artist whose journey from the kitchen to the studio reflects a lifelong exploration of transformation, resilience, and legacy. Born in New Jersey to Jamaican parents, Hibbert was shaped early by his mother’s creativity and his family’s deep sense of perseverance. His first calling was the culinary arts — graduating from Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, SC, in 1998 and working in some of Atlanta’s most respected kitchens, from the Buckhead Life Group to Atmosphere Bistro, where his leadership earned a coveted Zagat “Award of Excellence.”
A pivotal gift — his first camera from his mother — planted the seed of a parallel artistic path. What began as a personal exploration of photography grew into a public practice after exhibitions at Future Gallery revealed the resonance of his abstract eye. From those early shows emerged two defining series: Cotton Ghosts, an elegiac meditation on heritage and memory, and The London Plane Tree Study, which reimagines nature’s forms as sites of endurance and duality. Today, his work extends into monumental sculpture, most notably the Ode to John Henry series, built from salvaged railroad wood, iron, and rebar to reflect on Black labor, resilience, and the tension between humanity and machine.
Hibbert’s creative journey has been inseparable from his life of service — to family, community, and culture. In 2017, he became the caregiver for both parents, experiences that deepened his reflections on legacy, sacrifice, and endurance, and continue to shape his art. He is also the founder of The Obsidian Artist Collektive, a nonprofit dedicated to bridging generations of artists and amplifying underrepresented voices through talks, symposia, and youth programs.
Rooted in food, family, and art, Hibbert’s story is one of transformation — from serving meals to serving culture — and his practice remains a living testament to resilience, memory, and creative survival.
Artist Statement
Hopeton St. Clair Hibbert Jr. is an Atlanta-based multidisciplinary artist whose work investigates the profound connections between humanity and nature, and the cycles of resilience that shape the human experience. Through an interplay of space, form, and time, his practice bridges the physical and the metaphysical, revealing beauty often overlooked in the material world. Influenced by Gordon Parks’ narrative photography and the sculptural legacies of Julio González, Richard Hunt, and Ron Young, Hibbert creates across multiple media—fine art photography, mixed-media works on paper, and monumental sculpture—each serving as a vessel for cultural memory and transformation.
His London Plane Tree Study series transforms urban tree trunks into portraits of endurance and mythology. Enhanced through his distinctive “tactilized” technique—photographs layered with acrylic to evoke dimensionality—these works invite viewers to encounter nature as both witness and mirror to human life.
In his Cotton Ghosts series, Hibbert reimagines raw cotton as both material and metaphor. By suspending and reshaping cotton into ethereal sculptural forms, he evokes histories of enslavement and labor while illuminating the ways African Americans have carried trauma, resilience, and creativity forward. The work honors cotton as a cultural signifier—both a source of suffering and a symbol of survival—while offering a haunting meditation on memory and transformation.
His Ode to John Henry sculptures turn to the African American folk hero as an emblem of strength, cultural identity, and resistance. Constructed from salvaged railroad wood, rebar, and iron, these works recall the historical realities of Black labor while reflecting on the timeless tension between human hands and mechanized progress. Each piece is both a monument to perseverance and a celebration of cultural attributes—ingenuity, endurance, and the ability to create beauty out of struggle.
Across his practice, Hibbert reclaims and reimagines overlooked materials to address themes of social, cultural, and spiritual impermanence. His work challenges viewers to reflect on the shifting value of human contributions in an increasingly technological society, while honoring the resilience that continues to shape communities and cultural landscapes.
Photo credit: Jonathan Banks