SHELF
ROLAND HICKS | Backstreet Geometry
October 30 - December 16, 2022
Roland Hicks makes paradoxical paintings and objects that look like minimal abstract assemblages - apparently slightly crudely stapled together from offcuts of various types of chipboard. Sometimes these pieces also create a simple illusion of a three dimensional geometric solid, or of one form sitting in front of a shadow form behind it. Less simply, all the joins, staples, different chipboard textures etc are actually painted by hand - so, in addition to its abstract properties, his work is equally engaged with realism and ‘trompe l’oeil’ still life painting.
With the group of small freestanding works presented here the use of the word ‘Shady’ in many of the titles acknowledges the overlapping shadow forms, but also suggests their unreliability/untrustworthiness. Similarly ‘Two-Bit’ is used as a straightforward description of the number of pieces of chipboard that appear to be stapled together, while also using a term that seems to deride their worth.
It is a determinedly ambiguous approach. As well as sitting somewhere between abstraction and realism, these works also hover between painting and sculpture. They seem simultaneously simple and complex - both playful and serious, spontaneous and methodical - with a curiosity as to where and how we find
value in something. How little things matter.
There is no pre-existing model on which the artworks are based, so in some respects these are works of pure, albeit deliberately limited, imagination. Despite the layers of illusionistic deception these pieces are open and generous in their trickery, and genuine in their enjoyment of humble materials and creative acts both real and imagined.
Studied at Winchester School of Art [BA] and the Slade School Of Art [MFA], lives and works in London.
He is the third and most recent winner of the biennial Evelyn Williams Drawing Award, of £10,000 to develop a solo exhibition at Hastings Contemporary, ‘The Fourth Wall’ - dates to be announced.
Recent exhibitions include:
Contemporary British Painting Prize 2021,Huddersfield Art Gallery & Unit 1 gallery, London, 2021/22
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London and touring 2021/22
Studio Confetti, Terrace Gallery, London, 2021
Yellow Archangel; Perceiving Anomalies, General Practice, Lincoln, 2021
Then And Now, Terrace Gallery, London, 2020
Back Put Together It, with Stephen Palmer, Vane, Newcastle, 2019
Gradation, curated by Paul Carey Kent, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London2019
Wells Art Contemporary, Wells Cathedral, 2019
Creekside Open, selected by Brian Cyril Griffiths, APT Gallery, London 2019
The Tiresome Truth [also curating] with Angela de la Cruz and Helene Appel, ASC Gallery, London 2019
Contemporary British Painting Prize 2018, Huddersfield Art Gallery, 2018/19
Sticky Business, Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, Netherlands 2017/2018
Humble as Hell [also curating], with Susan Collis, Neil Gall, Nicky Hirst, Paul Housley, Duncan Macaskill, Stephen Palmer, Cathie Pilkington, Joel Tomlin and Richard Woods at the Kurt Schwitters Merz Barn, Elterwater, 2017
Cross Section 04 , with Tom Hackney and Catrin Morgan, dalla Rosa, London, 2017
Colour, Order, System, Sid Motion Gallery, London, 2017
O.S.B - Of Spaces Between, Mrs Ricks’ Cupboard, Primary, Nottingham, 2017
Alongside many previous solo and group shows, he has also featured in The John Moores Painting prize, The Jerwood Drawing prize, the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Threadneedle Art prize and the NatWest Art prize.
Collections include: Saatchi Gallery, Land Securities, The Groucho Club, Hiscox, Unilever Art Collection, The Fleming Collection, Oxford University Art Collection
Various private collections in Europe and the US.