January 21 - February 25, 2023
From Ivester Contemporary:
“Ivester Contemporary is proud to present, Understanding Coincidence in the Multiverse, an exhibition of new work by Candace Hicks. This exhibition features two of Hicks’ ongoing series; her 8“x10.5” hand embroidered compositions on canvas she calls Notes for String Theory as well as her multi-page hand embroidered bookworks titled String Theory. Both of these series focus on literary coincidence and Hicks’ fascination with the phenomenon of learning a new word or hearing about something in particular only to begin seeing it seemingly everywhere or reading the same unique phrase or idea in more than one book in short succession.
“I employ hand-embroidery in my work as a feminist statement to elevate the domestic arts. I build facsimiles of sheets of paper on wooden panels that are 8”x10.5” – the same dimensions as notebook paper. My pages confront the existential possibilities of the blank page. The size, format, and color palette of notebook paper, they are familiar and warped at the same time. From across the room, they appear as flat, linear designs, but upon closer inspection reveal themselves to be delicately textured. My work has taken literature as its subject for many years, and writing has been central to my artistic practice. As Covid-19 changed all our lives, I found it arrested my ability to compose a coherent text. The stories and commentary that had previously poured out of me were now blocked. As isolation became the norm, I began drawing versions of a blank sheet of paper in blue thread onto canvas. Where I had previously embroidered the text and illustrations of my textiles, I created a void. Not the first or last to confront the dread of the blank page or to bend writer’s block into subject matter, I have named my humble drawings for the theoretical framework uniting all matter and forces at play in the universe, calling them Notes for String Theory.”
With a background in book art, Candace Hicks’ work is based on reading fiction. She is the Coordinator of Foundations at Stephen F. Austin State University. She earned a Master of Fine Art degree in Printmaking from Texas Christian University. Her artist’s books are in collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art New York, Bainbridge Museum, Spencer Museum of Art, and many university special collections including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. She has been the recipient of the Kimbrough Grant from the Dallas Museum of Art and the Ise New York Cultural Foundation Grant.”
Reception: January 21, 2023 | 7–9 pm
916 Springdale Rd Bldg 2, Suite 107 Austin, TX 78702
Austin, 78702 Texas
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