Sheila Hicks once mused, “I often make a statement about my feelings regarding the world using textiles as my language.”
Sheila Hicks: Material Voices honors her unique vision, examining how her visual language has been shaped by memory, place, and space. Drawing on global weaving traditions, the history of painting and sculpture, graphic design, and architecture, among her many sources, Hicks has redefined the role of fiber and thread in art. From monumental architectural interventions to her miniature weavings known as
minimes, Hicks’s compositions combine an aptitude for color, line, and texture with her inimitable understanding of architectural space.
Hicks was born in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1934 and trained as a painter at the Yale University School of Art, taking courses with famed color theorist Josef Albers, pre-Columbian art scholar George Kubler,
and the architect Louis Kahn. Although she had learned to embroider and knit early
in life, Hicks became interested in textiles in 1956 while studying Latin American art. The following year, she traveled to South America, a formative experience for the young artist. With Santiago, Chile, as her home base, Hicks toured the continent to photograph the landscape and historical sites and learn indigenous weaving techniques. These textile practices, along
with other skills the artist discovered during her extensive travels — such as back-strap weaving and Moroccan and Guatemalan rug-making — continue to inform Hicks’s approach, even as she has developed new ways to use thread.
What's pictured: (below) Sheila Hicks,
Foray, 2015, linen,
cotton, feather, 9 5/8 x 5 3/4 in. (framed 17 7/8 x 16 3/8 in.), ©
Sheila Hicks, courtesy of Alison Jacques Gallery, London. Photo: Michael
Brzezinski
Upon completing her degree at Yale, Hicks lived for several years in Mexico before moving to Paris in 1964, where she still resides today. Her work has taken her across the globe, from Scandinavia, to Northern Africa, to the Indian Subcontinent, and now, on the occasion of her exhibition at Joslyn, back to the Midwestern United States. The most significant presentation of Hicks’s work in her home state, this exhibition spans nearly sixty years of her prolific career. Colorful suspended fiber pieces will engage and play with the architecture of the Museum’s Pavilion galleries. Among these installations will be a new,
large-scale work created specifically for the soaring elevations of the galleries in the Norman Foster building. Spread throughout the exhibition will be
minimes (min-eems) made over the last five decades. With their wandering lines and non-fiber materials — including feathers, shells, paper, and wood — these intimate weavings represent some of Hicks’s most experimental work. Using a crude loom she constructed in the late-1950s, Hicks turns to the
minimes to reflect on her rich life experiences and world travels. Placing older work in conversation with recently-made objects, the exhibition reflects Hicks’s own understanding of her practice not as a trajectory, but rather as an open plane that has allowed for innovation, appropriation, and constant reinvention.
Material Voices is accompanied by a catalogue featuring an interview with the artist by Monique Lévi-Strauss and texts by Karin Campbell, Phil Willson Curator of Contemporary Art; former United States Poet Laureate Ted Kooser; and New York-based art critic Jason Farago.
Click here to purchase the catalogue online at Joslyn's Hitchcock Museum Shop.
Click here to read about Joslyn's acquisition of two works by Sheila Hicks, both presently on view in the exhibition.
Hours, Tickets, & Tours
Material Voices is open during all regular Museum hours: Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm; late 'til 8 pm on Thursday. Closed Mondays and major holidays.
Material Voices is a ticketed exhibition:
General public adults: $10
(Thursday evening pricing, 4-8 pm: $5 for general public adults)
Youth ages 17 and younger: Free
College students with ID: Free
Joslyn Members: Free (Not a member?
Click here to join now!)
All visitors, including members, must obtain a ticket for entrance to the exhibition (no reservations necessary).
Programs with visits to the exhibition will be priced accordingly for general public adults. Docent-guided tours of the exhibition are offered on select days. Check the
calendar of events for exact tour dates.
Material Voices ticket pricing applies.
Mobile Material Voices
Free Wi-Fi is available in all Joslyn galleries. Bring your web-enabled mobile device or borrow one of ours to access the dual language
Material Voices mobile tour narrated by Karin Campbell, Phil Willson Curator of Contemporary Art. Presented by Joslyn and OnCell. Call (402) 881-3601 to access the tour in English; (402) 972-4031 for the Spanish language tour. Tour access information also available on site and on the Museum's mobile tour page.
What's pictured: (above)
Overflow, 2006, bathing tub and seagrass, dimensions variable, courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York, Photo: Jason Wyche; (below)
Grand Boules, 2009, linen, cotton, synthetic raffia, metallic fiber, 8 elements, diameter of individual elements ranges from 33 1/2 inches to 45 5/16 inches, courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. Photo: Jason Wyche
Exhibition-Related Events & Programs
Friday, June 3
Joslyn Art Museum Association Annual Gala
Saturday, June 4
Members Preview Day & Reception
Thursday, July 7; 5-7 pm
Omaha Under the Radar @ Joslyn
Thursdays,
July 14 and
August 18; 6:30 pm (cash bar @ 5 pm)
Curator Gallery Talks
Saturday, July 16; 2 pm-midnight
loom Weaves Joslyn
Saturday, August 13; 10 am-5 pm
Wrapped, Dyed, & Woven: A Celebration of Sheila Hicks
INTERTWINE: A Community Project
This summer join us to connect space between organizations, neighbors, friends, and strangers with colorful disk weavings that will be assembled together and displayed in Joslyn's Community Gallery.
Click here for workshop dates and a downloadable do-it-yourself guide.