October 2011

Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, NC, Features Works by Sheila Hicks

The Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, NC, will present the exhibit, Sheila Hicks: 50 Years, a comprehensive exhibition marking the first museum retrospective devoted to this pioneering figure, on view from Oct. 1 through Jan. 29, 2012.

Hicks is an artist who builds with color and thinks with line. From her earliest work created in the late 1950s to the present day, she has crossed the bounds of painting, sculpture, design, drawing, and woven form, and has been a critical force in redefining the domains of contemporary art-making. While challenging the relationship of fine art to commercial art, and studio practice to site-specific commissions, Hicks has, above all, reimagined the profound, vital relationship between artist and artisan.

Sheila Hicks: 50 Years addresses the artist’s conceptual, procedural, and material concerns via five distinct, though intimately related, fields of inquiry: bas reliefs and sculptures; small weavings and drawings; site commissions for public spaces; textiles; and process works made of recuperated textiles, clothing, and other found objects.

Born in Hastings, Nebraska, Hicks received her BFA and MFA degrees from Yale, studying painting with master teacher and theorist Josef Albers and history of art with George Kubler, a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Mesoamerican art. Hicks’ self-described practice of “linear thinking” and “composing texture” reflects the Bauhaus tradition of finding the expressive voices of different materials and the dynamic interactions of color. Her work reflects equally her studies with Kubler, in particular the juxtapositions of small Pre-Incaic weavings with the colossal structures of Machu Picchu that she first saw in his class.

From her earliest experiments with woven forms, Hicks has explored processes that skew the traditional grid, incorporating traditional and new materials or integrating found objects, even deconstructing her own works and reusing the elements to create any number of others. She has explored the role of the artist’s hand and the use of technologies to create works that range from the size of a page to that of a football field. In addition to her studio works and commissions, Hicks is noted internationally as a teacher and mentor to several generations of artists and designers.

Sheila Hicks: 50 Years is organized by the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. Generous support for this exhibition and publication has been provided by the J. Mark Rudkin Charitable Foundation, The Coby Foundation, Ltd., Friends of Fiber Art International, Able Trust, Target Corporation, and an anonymous donor.

The exhibition is accompanied by a full-color catalogue available for purchase in the Mint Museum Shops.

The Mint Museum Uptown houses the internationally renowned Mint Museum of Craft + Design, as well as outstanding collections of American, contemporary, and European art. Designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates of Boston, the five-story, 145,000-square-foot facility combines inspiring architecture with groundbreaking exhibitions to provide visitors with unparalleled educational and cultural experiences. Located in the heart of Charlotte’s burgeoning center city, the Mint Museum Uptown is an integral part of the Levine Center for the Arts

For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings, call the Museum at 704/337-2000 or visit (www.mintmuseum.org).

[ | October 2011 | Feature Articles | Carolina Arts Unleashed | Gallery Listings | Home | ]