Textile Artist Celebrated in Miami

Sheila Hicks is known for her innovative and experimental weavings and sculptural textile art that incorporate distinctive colors, natural materials, and personal narratives. Miami’s The Bass Museum has grouped her works of art from various periods and is currently presenting Campo Abierto (Open Field). It explores the formal, social and environmental aspects of landscape that have been present, yet rarely examined, throughout Sheila Hicks’ expansive career.

The exhibition brings together several large-format installations, as well as more intimately-scaled works, that utilize and transform the architecture of The Bass’ upstairs galleries. The selection of works in Campo Abierto (Open Field) foreground the museum’s context in South Florida, a multilingual locus traversed by complex immigration waves and patterns, alongside environmental concerns.

Hicks' art ranges from the minuscule to the monumental. Her materials vary as much as the size and shape of her work. Having begun her career as a painter, she has remained close to color, using it as a language she builds, weaves and wraps to create her pieces. She incorporates various materials into her "minimes", miniature weavings made on a wooden loom. These include transparent noodles, pieces of slate, razor clam shells, shirt collars, collected sample skeins of embroidery threads, rubber bands, shoelaces, and Carmelite-darned socks.

Sheila Hicks (b. 1934, Hastings, Nebraska) received her BFA and MFA degrees from Yale University. She received a Fulbright scholarship in 1957-58 to paint in Chile. While in South America, she developed her interest in working with fibers. After founding workshops in Mexico, Chile and South Africa, and working in Morocco and India, she now divides her time between her Paris studio and New York.

Campo Abierto (Open Field) runs through September 29, 2019.