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Predestined Color Wave II, 2015 linen 71 x 71 in. Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York Photography: Jason Wyche, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

SHEILA HICKS: MATERIAL VOICES

6/10/2016-5/2/2017
 
Opening reception: Wednesday October 5, 6:30 – 8 pm
Karin Campbell, exhibition curator, will be in attendance
 
“In all of the cultures of the world, textile is a crucial and essential component. Therefore, if you’re beginning with thread, you’re half way home. There’s a level of familiarity that immediately breaks down any prejudice.” — Sheila Hicks
 

Posted 16 August 2016

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Material Voices honours this world-renowned, Paris-based American artist’s unique vision, examining how her visual language has been shaped by memory, place and materiality. One of today’s most influential figures working with textiles, Hicks has redefined the role of fibre and thread in contemporary art practices. Drawing on global weaving traditions, painting, sculpture and architecture, the artist’s compositions combine an aptitude for colour, line and texture with an inimitable understanding of grand architectural space as well as intimate, personal moments.
 

 
Bâoli Chords/Cordes Sauvages Pow Wow, 2014-15 cotton, wool, linen, silk, bamboo, synthetic fibers 26 elements; each: 98 3/8 x 7 7/8 in. installation dimensions variable
Collection of the artist Photography: Michael Brzezinski, courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Including over 60 works of art, the exhibition spans 50 years of the artist’s prolific career, capturing the renowned breadth of her oeuvre from large-scale installations to small weavings alongside free-standing sculptures that combine supple materials with found objects and recent watercolours and mohair drawings on paper. 

Compass Arica, 2012-13 linen, iron installation dimensions variable Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York Photography: Jason Wyche, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

Lares and Penates, 1990-2013 found materials 90 elements 117 x 115 x 5 in. (installed) Courtesy the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York Photography: Jason Wyche, courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York

“We are thrilled to host the first major presentation of Ms. Hicks’ work in Canada,” says TMC Curatorial Director Sarah Quinton. “The deep influence of her lifetime of artistic practice is felt by artists around the world, and with this exhibition our audiences will gain new understandings of the lasting impressions of her early childhood in Nebraska and later formative years, when she traveled extensively in Mexico and South America with a focus on the landscape and local textile traditions.”
 

Placing older work in conversation with the new, Material Voices evokes Sheila Hicks' understanding of her practice as a continuous, open field that allows for innovation, appropriation and constant reinvention that find expression in delicate woven studies and large-scaled commissioned installations.
 
This exhibition is generously supported by Partners in Art, The United States Consulate General in Toronto, The Jack Weinbaum Family Foundation, and the Canada Council for the Arts.
 
 

Mandan Shrine, 2016 linen, cotton, synthetic fibers installation dimensions variable Collection of the artist Photography: Colin Conces

Sheila Hicks in front of elements from The Treaty of Chromatic Zones, 2015. Photo by Cristobal Zanartu.

About the Artist
Sheila Hicks was born in Hastings, Nebraska in 1934 and received her BFA and MFA degrees from Yale University. Following her studies at Yale with Joseph Albers, she received a Fulbright scholarship in 1957 to paint in Chile, where she photographed indigenous weavers and archaeological sites in the Andes. These personal journeys continue to influence her work. While in South America she further developed an interest in working with fibres, and her persistent inquiry led her to explore approaches in Mexico, Chile, Japan, South Africa, Morocco and India, among other regions. Based in Paris since 1964, she divides her time between her Paris studio and New York City.

Her first weaving exhibitions took place in the Galeria Antonio Souza, Mexico City (1961) and the Art Institute of Chicago (1963). Numerous solo shows followed, among them the exhibition Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor (2006), which presented a ground breaking presentation of her small works, minimes.

The major retrospective of her large scale pieces, Sheila Hicks: 50 Years, debuted at the Addison Gallery of American Art in 2010 and travelled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC. Other recent solo shows include Foray into Chromatic Zones (2015) at the Hayward Gallery, and Bâoli at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2014-15), the Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis (2015), and the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Munich (2015). Upcoming exhibitions will be held at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Puebla, Mexico, (2016) and Centre Pompidou, Paris, (2017).
 

Moresque, 1974 cotton, wool, silk 9 1/4 x 5 1/2 in. (framed: 14 1/2 x 10 in.) Gift of Anonymous Donor, 2006-14-1, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Photography: Matt Flynn © Smithsonian Museum

Collections 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Cleveland Museum, Ohio
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Smart Museum, Chicago
The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia
The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota
The Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
The Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague, Czechoslovakia
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
The Museums of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

Awards
Honorary Doctorate, École des Beaux Arts, Paris, 2014
Smithsonian Archives of American Art Medal, 2010
Gold Medal, American Crafts Council, 1997
Officier des Arts et des Lettres, France 1996
Medal of Fine Arts, French Academy of Architecture, 1985
Gold Medal, American Institute of Architects, 1975
Fulbright grant to study painting in Chile, 1954-57
Honorary Doctorate, Rhode Island School of Design
Fellow of the Kunst Akademie, The Hague, Holland
Fellow of the Textile Society of America 

Emerging with Grace, 2016 linen, cotton, silk, shell 7 7/8 x 11 in. Collection of the artist Photography: Cristobal Zanartu

Bas-relief panel for architectural project, 2014-15 linen 19 3/4 x 19 3/4 in. Collection of the artist
Photography: Michael Brzezinski, courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Bas-relief panel for architectural project, 2014-15 linen 11 3/4 x 23 5/8 in. Collection of the artist
Photography: Michael Brzezinski, courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London

Foray, 2015 linen, cotton, feather 9 5/8 x 5 3/4 in. (framed: 17 7/8 x 16 3/8 in.) Courtesy the artist and Alison Jacques Gallery, London Photography: Michael Brzezinski, courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London

El Tiempo, 1989-2014 cotton, wool, linen, silk, bamboo, synthetic material 157 1/2 x 15 3/4 x 15 3/4 in. Private Collection, New York and courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London Photography: Michael Brzezinsky, courtesy Alison Jacques Gallery, London

About the Textile Museum of Canada
The Textile Museum of Canada has a 40-year history of exploring ideas and building cultural understanding. Connecting contemporary art and design to international textile traditions, this national museum is one of Canada’s most engaging arts institutions welcoming thousands of visitors from across the country and around the world each year. The Museum’s permanent collection spans 2,000 years and consists of over 13,000 artifacts from virtually every country as our increasingly global communities. A leader in the digitization of collections and interactive environments, the TMC is as “high tech” as “high touch” – recognized for its innovation in the development of landmark educational, research and creative initiatives.
 
Sheila Hicks: Material Voices has been organized by Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully-illustrated colour catalogue published by Joslyn Art Museum, available in the Textile Museum of Canada Shop.

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