Nicola Hicks
Biography
File:Sculpture at Schoenthal-hicks 086.jpg, 1996–97]]Hicks studied at the Chelsea School of Art from 1978 to 1982 and at the Royal College of Art from 1982 to 1985.Falconer, Morgan. [http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T097259 "Hicks, Nicola."] In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online, (accessed 12 February 2012; subscription required).
Animals are Hicks' primary subject matter, usually sculpted in straw and plaster.{{cite news | url=https://shapersofthe80s.com/the-face-i-d-media/1983-shock-report-on-art-schools-in-crisis/ | work=The Face, issue 39, page 44, republished at Shapersofthe80s | date=July 1983 | first=David | last=Johnson | title=Shock report on art-schools in crisis | accessdate=3 January 2024}} This was unusual for an artist in the 1980s, by which time abstract sculpture and installation art had become the norm in the art world. Hicks also works on huge sheets of brown paper on which she works up her dynamic charcoal drawings. Many of the sculptures have subsequently been cast in bronze, often with such subtlety that every detail of plaster and straw is reproduced.{{cite web|url=https://www.flowersgallery.com/artists/view/nicola-hicks|title=Nicola Hicks Biography|publisher=Flowers Gallery|access-date=21 May 2017}}
Hicks was recognised by Elisabeth Frink, who selected her for a solo exhibition at Angela Flowers's gallery in 1985.[http://www.sculpture.org.uk/NicolaHicks/ "Nicola Hicks"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120604192110/http://www.sculpture.org.uk/NicolaHicks/ |date=4 June 2012 }}, at the Cass Sculpture Foundation. Includes detailed biography and analysis of the piece "Recovered Memory".
To accompany an exhibition at Flowers Gallery in 1993, Robert Heller said:
"The only thing precocious about that one-day show was the artist's age: she was only 24. But the work had a maturity of concept and sureness of execution that defied precocity. The life-sized dying bull of straw and hessian, in particular, was a terrifying work, whose physical frailty contrasted with its colossal psychic presence. The Gallery quickly invited Hicks to join its permanent family of artists, and her first one-person show followed in 1985. Such discovery of new talent for the Gallery was a welcome by product of the annual Artist of the Day fortnight. Hicks was by no means unrecognised, though. She was still a student at the Royal College of Art (having got her degree at Chelsea), but had already featured in mixed exhibitions at locales ranging from Christies to Liverpool via Ruskin College. In 1985, however, her career blossomed. In addition to the Flowers show, her work was exhibited in Kettle’s Yard, the Hayward Annual, New York, Serpentine, etc."
Hicks has achieved success as an artist, creating public sculptures such as Beetle in Bristol and the second iteration of the Brown Dog Memorial in Battersea Park.{{cite web|url=http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/beetle.html|title="Beetle" by Nicola Hicks|access-date=16 May 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120126034936/http://www.at-bristol.org.uk/beetle.html|archive-date=26 January 2012|df=dmy-all}} She has had major solo shows in leading museums and galleries in Britain and around the world, and was made an MBE in the 1995 New Year Honours for her contribution to the visual arts. In 2010 Hicks exhibited Black, 2008 in 'Exhibitionism' at the East Wing, Courtauld Institute of Art at Somerset House.{{cite web|url=http://londonist.com/2010/01/exhibitionism_east_wing_courtauld_i.php|title=Exhibitionism @ East Wing, Courtauld Institute of Art|date=25 January 2010|publisher=Londonist|access-date=21 May 2017}}
File:Brown Dog - Battersea Park - 2008-04-09.jpg|"Brown Dog", Battersea Park, 1985
File:Bristol Nicola Hicks 01.jpg|'"Beetle", Bristol, 2000
File:Knights Templar - geograph.org.uk - 911186.jpg|"Statue on Knights Templar Column", London, 2000
File:Sculpture at Schoenthal-hicks 081.jpg|"Crouching Minotaur", Sculpture at Schoenthal, 2003
Key exhibitions
;Flowers Gallery East
Wabbling Back to the Fire, Flowers East, London, 19 September - 11 November 2017, Solo exhibition.{{Cite web|url=https://londonist.com/london/art-and-photography/september-s-must-see-exhibitions|title=11 Exhibitions Not To Miss in September|date=29 August 2017 |publisher=Londonist.com|access-date=23 September 2017}}
;Yale Center for British Art
Sculpture by Nicola Hicks - Yale Center for British Art, 14 November 2013 – 9 March 2014{{cite web|url=http://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions/sculpture-nicola-hicks|title=Sculpture by Nicola Hicks|publisher=Yale Center For British Art|date= 14 November 2013|access-date=21 May 2017}}{{cite web| url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/theater-art/2013/12/12/review-sculpture-nicola-hicks-yale-center-for-british-art/VOkE3cSttarneBjJ80TroK/story.html|title=Hicks sculpts animals in the great British tradition|last1=Smee|first1=Sebastian|work=Boston Globe|date= 12 December 2013|access-date=21 May 2017}}{{cite web|url=http://www.nhregister.com/arts-and-entertainment/20140118/sculpture-by-nicola-hicks-at-yale-center-for-british-art-in-new-haven|title=Sculpture by Nicola Hicks at Yale Center for British Art|last1=Doherty|first1=Donna|publisher=New Haven Register|date= 18 January 2013|access-date=21 May 2017}}
In this exhibition, Hicks's life-size sculptures are placed in the galleries amid objects of the center's permanent collection, home to one of the world's most important collections of British art outside the UK.{{cite web|url=http://www.architectureweek.com/2005/0302/culture_1-1.html|title=Yale Center for British Art|work=Architecture Week|date= 2 March 2005|access-date=21 May 2017}}
;The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things
Mark Leckey: Hayward Gallery Touring Exhibition.
{{cite web| url=http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/mark-leckey-the-universal-addressability-of-dumb-things-at-nottingham-contemporary/|title=Mark Leckey, The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things|work=Aesthetica|date= 23 April 2013|access-date=21 May 2017}}{{cite web| url=https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/about/touring-programme/hayward-touring/mark-leckey|title=The Universal Addressability of Dumb Things|last1=Leckey|first1=Mark|publisher=South Bank Centre|access-date=21 May 2017}}
- The Bluecoat, Liverpool, 16 February – 14 April 2013
- Nottingham Contemporary, 27 April – 30 June 2013
- De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea, 13 July – 20 October 2013
- Venice Biennale (virtual exhibition), 1 June – 24 November 2013{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}
This exhibition, curated by Turner prize-winning artist Mark Leckey, explores how our relationships with artworks and common objects alike are being transformed through new information technologies.
Personal life
Hicks married Daniel Flowers, youngest son of Angela Flowers.{{cite news |last1=Darwent |first1=Charles |title=Angela Flowers obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/aug/14/angela-flowers-obituary |access-date=14 August 2023 |work=Guardian |date=14 August 2023}}
Bibliography
Exhibition Catalogues
- Nicola Hicks: Sculpture & Drawings, [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers East, 1995] London.{{cite book|title=Nicola Hicks: Sculpture & Drawings|last1=Hicks|first1=Nicola|publisher=Djanogly Art Gallery|isbn=9780950462271|date=1 February 1995 }}
- Fire & Brimstone, [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers East, 1991] London
- A walk in the Park, [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers East, 2010] London
- Sculpture, Drawing, Prints, Flowers, [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Flowers East, 2007] London{{cite web| url=https://www.abbothall.org.uk/exhibitions/nicola-hicks-sculpture-drawing-and-light|title=Nicola Hicks: Sculpture, Drawing and Light|publisher=Abbot Hall Art Gallery|date= 18 January 2015|access-date=20 May 2017}}
- Nicola Hicks; Sculpture, Drawing & Light, [Catalogue of the exhibition held at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 2005] Cumbria{{cite book|title=Nicola Hicks; Sculpture, Drawing & Light|last1=King|first1=Edward|publisher=Abbot Hall Art Gallery|isbn=1902498186|date=18 January 2005 }}
- Nicola Hicks; Keep Dark, Published by Flowers Gallery and Elephant to coincide with the Wabbling Back to the Fire exhibition held at Flowers East, 2017 London{{Cite web|url=https://elephant.art/five-sculpture-shows-to-see-in-london/|title=Five Sculpture Shows to See in London|date=5 October 2017|work=Elephant Magazine}}
Monographs
- Dellingpole, J., Denselow, A., Elliot, A. Read, B. and Self, W. (1999) Nicola Hicks, Momentum Publishing{{cite book| url=https://www.flowersgallery.com/shop/books/momentum-publishing-nicola-hicks|title=Nicola Hicks|last1=Read|first1=Benedict|last2=Elliot|first2=Ann|last3=Self|first3=Will|last4=Denselow|first4=Anthony|publisher=Momentum Publishing|isbn=1873362897|access-date=21 May 2017}}
- Lynton, N. (2004) Sculpture, Flowers, London,{{cite book|title=Nicola Hicks; Sculpture|last1=Lynton|first1=Norbert|publisher=Flowers Gallery|isbn=9781902945439|date=15 September 2004 }}
- Self, W. (1998) The Camel That Broke the Straw's Back, Flowers East, London .{{cite book|title=The Camel That Broke the Straw's Back|last1=Self|first1=Will|publisher=Flowers Gallery|isbn=9781873362945|date=1 January 1998 }}
References
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External links
{{Commons category}}
{{Portal|Biography|Visual arts}}
- [http://nicolahicks.com/ Nicola Hicks website].
- [http://www.getty.edu/vow/ULANFullDisplay?find=Nicola+Hicks&role=&nation=&prev_page=1&subjectid=500145695 Entry for Nicola Hicks] on the Union List of Artist Names.
- Graham, Caz. [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2005_09_thu_04.shtml Interview with Nicola Hicks], BBC Radio 4. 3 March 2005.
- Alberge, Dalya. [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/in-the-studio--animal-vegetable-or-mineral-nicola-hickss-animal-sculptures-involve-plaster-pets-and-mountains-of-straw-dalya-alberge-met-her-1392775.html "Animal, vegetable or mineral?: Nicola Hicks's animal sculptures involve plaster, pets and mountains of straw."] The Independent. 8 February 1994.
- Flowers Gallery [https://web.archive.org/web/20120511134616/http://www.flowersgallery.com/artists/118-artists/3848-nicola-hicks/#/section-work/ Nicola Hicks].
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Category:Alumni of Chelsea College of Arts
Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art
Category:Sculptors from London
Category:English women sculptors
Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire
Category:21st-century British women artists