Sheila Hicks

Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder expands to a new exhibition space in Vienna, which will be inaugurated with installation works by the American artist Sheila Hicks.

The gallery will open the 65 square meters exhibition space on the ground floor of the listed “Kleiner Bischofshof” (Small Bishop’s Court) in Domgasse 6, located in close proximity to the main, renowned gallery at Grünangergasse 1. The idiosyncratic space, structured by arches and niches, conveys a baroque-like modernity that contrasts with the spatial idea of the “White Cube”. Like a cabinet of curiosities, different genres and perspectives can unfold – special series of works as well as significant sculptural approaches and installations. 

“Sheila Hicks, born in Nebraska in 1934, has lived and worked in Paris since 1964. She began as a painter, but soon broadened the scope of her artistic output using soft materials and drawing inspiration from ancestral art, particularly pre-Columbian. Her wrapped, woven, embroidered, knotted and twisted works are made of fibres both natural and man-made and systematically transcend strictly pictorial or sculptural genres as they assimilate the open space.

The artist deploys all manner of resources in her experiments. It is her belief that each material speaks its own language, defined by properties such as color, thickness, and haptic quality. By merging, within the same work, highly disparate and even unexpected color tones, textures and materials, she initiates a conversation in which each voice has its own place, a conversation in which we, too, are invited to take part.

In creating the Cosmic Vibrations installation for the inauguration of the new space at the Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Hicks has adapted to the specificities of the location, as is her wont. Perhaps she is also responding more generally to the onerous context of our times, opening up paths of sensitivity we may have lost. What is certain is that Sheila Hicks encourages us to break free of the confinement of our individualistic world by affording us access to the most immediate and sensitive qualities of our universe.” (Julia Garimorth, chief curator at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris)