Sheila Hicks and the exhibition landscape from SFMOMA to Shanghai
Published on 08/24/2026 at 10:44 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Sheila Hicks has translated fiber into expansive sculptural environments for more than six decades. Her exhibition New Work: Sheila Hicks at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art marks her first solo presentation at the institution, spanning the museum's fourth and fifth floors.
Recent museum shows with fiber installations
At SFMOMA, New Work: Sheila Hicks brings a site-specific installation to the Floor 4 New Work gallery, paired with an outdoor commission in the Jean and James Douglas Sculpture Garden on Floor 5. The museum highlights how her fiber forms respond to light, weather and the architecture of the sculpture garden.
The SFMOMA project is framed as part of the museum's ongoing New Work series, which invites artists to produce commissions tailored to the building and its surrounding cityscape. Hicks's installation draws on textures from her migratory life, from courtyard cobblestones to coastal landscapes, translating them into dense bundles and cascades of threads.
Exhibition & Show focus across continents
Beyond San Francisco, Hicks's work enters the Chinese institutional landscape with Material Matters: Sheila Hicks & Shi Hui at West Bund Museum in Shanghai. The show, described as her first exhibition in China, explores knitting, weaving and textile-based structures as contemporary sculptural language.
Gallery and press material note that the West Bund presentation includes the project Rivers Near and Far, positioning Hicks's fiber forms in dialogue with Shi Hui's paper and stone works. This curatorial pairing underlines how material choice and surface detail drive the exhibition's narrative of "redefining textile art".
All news and background on Sheila Hicks
For further reporting on Sheila Hicks's exhibitions, commissions and institutional projects, the AD HOC NEWS archive offers an overview of recent developments and art-market context.
How the artist builds space with fiber
Hicks is widely identified as a fiber artist whose work operates between sculpture, installation and textile. She often composes thick bundles of yarn, linen and synthetic fibers into hanging formats, floor-bound accumulations and wall-mounted reliefs that transform galleries into tactile environments.
Her practice grew from early studies of Andean and pre-Columbian weaving, later expanding into architectural collaborations and large-scale commissions in public spaces. Across projects like Peregrinación in Antigua, Guatemala, she has used wrapped poles and vivid color to stage processional, almost ritual spatial sequences around historic structures.
Where the artist stands now
Sheila Hicks continues to develop new fiber installations for institutional contexts in Europe, the Americas and Asia, with museum shows such as New Work: Sheila Hicks at SFMOMA and Material Matters at West Bund Museum underscoring the breadth of her exhibition activity.
Key facts on Sheila Hicks
- Artist: Sheila Hicks
- Medium / Genre: Fiber art and installation
- Born: 1934, Hastings, Nebraska, United States
- Place(s) of practice: Studio practice anchored in Paris with long-term international projects in the United States and Latin America
- Active since: late 1950s, with early exhibitions following studies of pre-Columbian textiles
- Key work groups: Minimes, Bâtons de parole, Peregrinación, Material Matters
- Current/last exhibition: New Work: Sheila Hicks, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, August 9, 2025–August 9, 2026
- Major collections: Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac (Paris), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Art Institute of Chicago, National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC)
- Awards: Smithsonian Archives of American Art Medal, 2010; honorary recognitions from textile and design institutions documented in museum biographies
- Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window
Frequently asked questions about Sheila Hicks
Where has Sheila Hicks recently presented major institutional exhibitions?
Recent institutional projects include New Work: Sheila Hicks at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Material Matters: Sheila Hicks & Shi Hui at West Bund Museum in Shanghai, both emphasizing her large-scale fiber installations.
How does Sheila Hicks define her use of fiber in exhibition contexts?
According to museum and gallery texts, Hicks treats fiber as a sculptural medium, building dense, multi-layered installations that respond to architecture, light and visitors' movement through space, rather than traditional flat textiles.
Which work groups are central to Sheila Hicks's exhibition practice?
Key work groups documented in institutional and gallery sources include small-format Minimes, pole-based Bâtons de parole, the site-specific installation Peregrinación in Guatemala and material-focused projects grouped under Material Matters.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
