EXHIBITIONS
Down Side Up
May 24 – July 6, 2018
SHEILA HICKS
B. 1934
Sheila Hicks (b. 1934, Hastings, Nebraska) received her BFA (1957) and MFA (1959) degrees from the Yale School of Art under the tutelage of Josef Albers. Awarded a Fulbright scholarship to paint in Chile, she photographed indigenous weavers and archeological sites in the Andes beginning an investigation into fiber as an artistic medium that Hicks continues to this day.
Sheila Hicks’ earliest weaving exhibitions took place in the Galeria Antonio Souza, Mexico City (1961) and The Art Institute of Chicago (1963). Numerous solo exhibitions followed: Galerie Bab Rouah, Rabat, Morocco (1971); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1974); Lunds Konsthall, Lund, Sweden (1978); Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1980); Seoul Art Center (1991); and Uměleckoprůmyslové Museum, Prague (1992). A major retrospective, Sheila Hicks: 50 Years, debuted at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts (2010) and traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Recent solo presentations include Sheila Hicks: Off Grid at The Hepworth Wakefield, United Kingdom (2022); the outdoor site-specific installation Woven Wonders, at Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, London, United Kingdom (2022); Reencuentro, Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago, Chile (2019); Sheila Hicks: Campo Abierto (Open Field), The Bass, Miami Beach, FL (2019); Sheila Hicks: Life Lines, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2018); and Sheila Hicks: Material Voices, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE. Hicks also participates in numerous group and international perennial exhibitions, most recently the Biennale of Sydney, Glasgow International, and Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art (all 2016).
Hicks has created monumental site-specific works for the Ford Foundation Headquarters and Federal Courthouse in New York; The Duke Endowment in Charlotte, North Carolina; King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey amongst others.
Hicks’ work is in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, IL; The Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; The Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, France; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; and Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom, among many others.
Hicks is the recipient of numerous awards including the Smithsonian Archives of American Art Medal (2010). She was named a Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France in 1987, and elevated to Officier in 1993. She was also awarded the title of Chevalier by the Legion d’Honneur in 2023. She holds Honorary Doctorates from Yale University (2019), the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris (2014), and the Rhode Island School of Design (1984).
Sheila Hicks has resided and worked in Paris since 1964.