“Hicks revealingly quipped that while it might be the conservator’s job to tame works – to make them stable and fixed – hers, as an artist, must always be to agitate and to keep them alive. These are works that embody Hicks’ sense of nomadic improvisation, never fixed, always open to change and to infinite potential held within a single strand of thread”.
Andrew Bonacina, Sheila Hicks: Off Grid, published by the Hepworth Wakefield (2022)
Alison Jacques is pleased to announce ‘Sheila Hicks: Infinite Potential’, the inaugural exhibition of our new gallery at 22 Cork Street, Mayfair.
Advocate and pioneer, internationally acclaimed artist Sheila Hicks (b.1934 Hastings, Nebraska; lives and works in Paris since 1964) has collaborated with Alison Jacques since 2012.
A life journey of working and wandering, deviations from pre-planned paths, Hicks’ thirst and curiosity for innovation and adventure enables her to continue to elevate our perception of humble materials as she places them centre stage. By introducing and transforming the use of new materials, such as banana fibre, stainless steel and pigmented acrylic, Hicks continues to explore the joy and potential of colour while expanding our experience of the possibilities of sculpture.
For ‘Infinite Potential’, Sheila Hicks will exhibit different series of new work which make up her extensive vocabulary. For the first time in London, Hicks will create an installation of Talking Sticks, wall based batons made from bamboo and multicoloured pigmented fibre placed as if in conversation with each other. Also on view will be Mirage in the Oasis from Hicks’ iconic Lianes series; where linen, cotton and silk cordes hang as vines of colour including avocado green, russet orange and gold. New Comets, including Scarlet in Orbit and Coincidence, will burst with colour alongside the consistent presence of Minimes – small-scale weavings made on a repurposed frame-turned-loom; metaphorical diaries of the artist’s adventures which often incorporate found objects such as seashells, stones, bones and razor clams. New thread paintings with titles such as Sunset Contained Forever will be exhibited alongside Bas Reliefs. These include He, She and More and The Shortest Route to Mercy which reflect Hicks’ new direction and continued experimentation with warp and weft, as well her infinite spectrum of colour.
