Brian R. Jobe (American, b. 1981) is an artist, educator, and non-profit director based in Knoxville, TN.
Jobe's studio practice is focused on sculpture and installation. In his larger scale work, he creates schemes for public interaction through the delineation of pathways. His most recent work collages material into assemblages utilizing signifiers of natural and manufactured landscapes. The materials are stacked or held in compression, but without the use of hardware or adhesives. He desires a sort of inevitability to be felt within the viewer’s experience as they consider the material’s history and stream of consciousness associations. He is inspired by the act of construction and the space between reductive minimalism and human touch.
His solo exhibitions have been on view at venues such as Mixed Greens Gallery (New York, NY), Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum (San Antonio, TX), University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY), Alabama Contemporary Art Center (Mobile, AL), and McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX). He has permanent, outdoor sculptures located at the Western North Carolina Sculpture Park (Lenoir, NC) and Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum (Knoxville, TN). Jobe is also a founding member of the Land Report Collective and exhibits regularly with the group.
For over a dozen years, he has taught art on the college level for Lipscomb University (Nashville, TN), Austin Peay State University (Clarksville, TN), and Pellissippi State Community College (Knoxville, TN) among others. He also regularly serves as a visiting speaker, conversation moderator, and juror. Born in Houston, TX and raised in Memphis, TN, Jobe received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2004 and Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2006.
Brian Co-Founded Tri-Star Arts with his wife Carolyn Jobe in 2014 and is currently its Executive Director. Tri-Star Arts serves Tennessee by cultivating and spotlighting the contemporary visual art scenes in each region while fostering a unified state-wide art scene. Their programs promote art dialogue between the different cities in the state, and between the state and the nation. Tri-Star Arts initiatives include a gallery space and artist studios at the historic Candoro Marble Building, annual Current Art Fund project grants, the Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art, statewide collaborative projects, and the LocateArts.org web resource.