photo by Alexandrea Lassiter for ArtsNowNC

photo by Alexandrea Lassiter for ArtsNowNC

Warren Hicks is a visual and conceptual artist working in a variety of media including photography, video, sculpture, painting, drawing, and installation. Hicks lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and works in his studio at Golden Belt in Durham.

Completely self-taught, Hicks' artistic evolution has been as unique as his personal revolution. Hicks has morphed through a progression of styles, mediums, and influences—embracing, digesting, and discarding. A restless experimenter with a keen sense of humor, he is constantly pushing himself into new ideas in visual art, writing, and more.

Born and raised in Chickasha, Oklahoma, Hicks studied architectural design at Oklahoma State University. Prior to graduation, he fled Oklahoma under cover of darkness to Miami, Florida to explore opportunities within the music industry. After twelve years of toil and slight hearing loss, Hicks returned to architectural drafting and relocated to Chapel Hill. In 2002, at the ripe age of 36, he began painting.

Although Hicks established himself as an abstract painter, his recent forays into photography, sculpture, and conceptual art have been well received. Hicks' work has been shown throughout the U.S. as well as in Beijing, China and Skopje, Macedonia.

When he isn't making his own art, Hicks is a freelance art preparator for museums and corporate art collections. Museum clients include: NC Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, NC; CAM Raleigh, Raleigh, NC; Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill, NC. Some of the artists whose work has passed, but not slipped, through his hands include Picasso, Miro, Calder, El Greco, Rauschenberg, Van Gogh, Wangechi Mutu, Nick Cave, and El Anatsui.


STATEMENT

As a multi-disciplinary artist, I rely on my ideas to dictate the media instead of forcing them into one of convenience or habit. After having spent the majority of my artistic career as a painter, I’ve unhitched my definition of an artist from simple categories of media in order to open myself to an idea-based practice. This freedom has led me to the exploration of photography, sculpture, audio/video installations, and more. The media I deploy in my work may vary but there is always a linear progression throughout.