Sheila Hicks

Sheila Hicks explores the vibrant possibilities of thread as she crafts wall-mounted textiles, hanging and floor-based sculptures, and monumental installations. While her exuberant palette and keen understanding of color link her work to painting, Hicks has helped propel textile arts, soft sculpture, and modes of traditionally underappreciated women’s work into the canon of fine art. Hicks received both her BFA and MFA from Yale University, where she studied under Josef Albers. After a conversation with his wife, the ingenious textile artist Anni Albers, Hicks realized she could integrate Josef’s color theories with Anni’s emphasis on structure. Hicks has participated in the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, and the São Paulo Bienal. In 2010, she was awarded the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art Medal. Her work has sold for six figures at auction and belongs in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Stedelijk Museum, the Centre Pompidou, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.