Sheila Hicks
(b. 1934, USA)
Born in 1934 in Hastings, Nebraska, Sheila Hicks is a pioneering figure in contemporary textile art. She studied painting at Yale University, where she was influenced by Josef Albers’s teachings on colour, structure, and material experimentation—principles that have remained central to her work.
In the late 1950s, Hicks travelled extensively throughout Latin America, including Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Venezuela. During this formative period, she studied indigenous weaving traditions and pre-Columbian textiles, developing an understanding of fibre as both a structural and cultural language. These experiences became foundational to her work.
In 1960, she settled in Taxco, Mexico, where she worked with local weavers and silversmiths and taught at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. During this time, she produced large-scale textile works and developed her engagement with architecture. In 1964, she moved to Paris, where she established her studio and continues to live and work.
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Hicks developed a practice that moves between art, design, and architecture, and collaborated with architects and designers, and produced both monumental installations and smaller works. Her practice ranges from the Minimes—intimate, ongoing studies—to large commissions such as Wall Hangings and site-specific works for private and public spaces, including projects for the Ford Foundation, IBM, CBS in New York, and Air France.
A key aspect of Hicks’s work is her engagement with textile traditions across different cultures. She has collaborated with artisans and workshops in various regions, reflecting an ongoing interest in material knowledge and technique. Her smaller works retain a direct, process-based quality, functioning as sites of experimentation.
From the late 1960s onwards, Hicks has gained international recognition through exhibitions at major institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. She has participated in important international exhibitions and biennials, including Lausanne, São Paulo, Venice, and Sydney.
In addition to her artistic practice, Hicks served as editor-in-chief of American Fabrics and Fashion in the mid-1980s. In 2000, directed a workshop in Cape Town, South Africa—sponsored by UNESCO-documented in the film Traditions of Tomorrow: Weaving Africa.
Hicks has received numerous distinctions including Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur in France. Her work has been the subject of major international exhibitions, including the retrospective Lignes de vie at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2018), as well as exhibitions such as Sheila Hicks: Reencuentro at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino in Santiago (2019), Thread, Trees, River at the MAK in Vienna (2020), and Off Grid at the Hepworth Wakefield (2020). She has also presented work at Kunstmuseum St. Gallen and the Centre Pompidou Málaga (2023), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2024). In 2025, her work is presented at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris. In November 2026, she will present a solo exhibition at the PAC Milano (Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea).
In 2026, Hicks will present two further major exhibitions: at the Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo, Brazil (August 20 – October 25), curated by Paulo Miyada, Ana Roman, and Luis Pérez-Oramas; and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille (October 8, 2026 – late March 2027), curated by Julia Garimorth. Continuing to live and work in Paris, she remains actively engaged in her practice.
