Nginx + Wordpress: How do I ignore an /admin/ directory?

I have a standard Wordpress install on an Ubuntu 16.04 server using nginx.

Part of the DO tutorial for the Wordpress setup is to include this line:

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$args;

I need all requests to /admin/(.+) to avoid running through Wordpress’ index.php because the files here have nothing to do with Wordpress.

I’ve tried a standalone location /admin {…} block, if statements within location / {…} and nothing seems to work; /admin continually gets matched by the above try_files block/

Any insight as to how I need to set this up to exclude /admin and all subdirectories/files from being run through Wordpress?

Thank you!