Rae Hicks

Rae Hicks (b. England, 1988) works in London. Rae Hicks takes the forms that most often appear in ornamental pictures, as well as those canonised by the historically established categories of ‘still life’ and ‘landscape’. Familiar objects and iconography including jugs & vases, moon, sun, buildings, hills and flowers frequently appear prosaic. Colour, subject and composition is reconfigured to suggest something or somewhere else where new psychological circumstances unfold. Ultimately, questioning our relationship to language of signifiers and the suggestiveness of forms in the paintings. The uniformity and hegemonic character of the cityscape is abutted against the surface of the canvas. Titles such as Fat City (2018) and Clean Living (2018) nudge at a reading of the work that references health food movements, the “good life,” and the body beautiful. They depict the Manhattan-esque dream of all cities, where time is money and space is measured in price per square foot.