joseph scissorhands: Sheila Hicks: Infinite Potential

Sunday 15 October 2023

Sheila Hicks: Infinite Potential

Sheila Hicks - Mirage in the Oasis, 2023 (detail)

‘My interest in textiles’, she said, ‘didn’t mean I stopped painting – I loved it – but my fascination with coloured lines and inventing pliable two- and three-dimensional structures slowly overtook every other enthusiasm.’ - Sheila Hicks.

It is Frieze week and many galleries have drawn up their rosters to showcase their most prestigious artists in order to secure those crucial sales. I took a walk down Cork Street and was impressed with several of the exhibitions I found there. I was delighted to see that Alison Jacques Gallery now has a home here, having decamped from Berners Street, and that their inaugural show was of the wonderful textile works of Sheila Hicks, which I'd discovered previously in the gallery's last space (here). This show again demonstrates Hicks's inventiveness and versatility through a range of techniques in the medium of textiles with sculptural works which look as though they could have been made by an indigenous tribe, wall-mounted pieces, ethereal, woven structural hangings and a huge installation of brightly coloured boulder-like cushions. Hicks's inventiveness also comes through in her introduction of unconventional materials such as feathers and sea shells into her weavings. This show also contains some older pieces which is particularly interesting, as you can chart the development and progression of her practice. This exhibition as well as being fun, is a masterclass in the art of textiles.