Floor 4
Across nearly seven decades, Sheila Hicks has been a leading force in placing fiber at the center of visual arts and design. Based in Paris since 1964, she has continually pushed the artistic boundaries of natural and synthetic materials in her work, from intimate weavings with found materials to monumental architectural installations that transform our experiences of space, material and color.
Hicks’s first solo exhibition at SFMOMA will feature a site-specific commission in the museum’s New Work gallery. Here, the artist draws on her longtime interest in the lighthouses that dot the island of Ouessant (Ushant) in Brittany, just off the coast of western France, where crossing beams of light on rocky outposts guide ships across the rugged coastline. The SFMOMA installation will include a monumental bas-relief composed of twisted and wrapped threads, a selection of small-scale hand-woven works inspired by the lighthouse as a marker and pathfinder, a new series of wrapped “beacon panels” in vibrant colors, and a towering central hanging fiber piece inspired by the lighthouse that will anchor the installation. In this dynamic presentation, Hicks will interlace new and old works in a luminous range of colors that bridge the past and present and span space and generations. As Hicks explains, “It’s about the fact that it’s showing you the way . . . lighting your path.”
The exhibition in SFMOMA’s New Work gallery will be complemented by an expansive outdoor commission on the museum’s Floor 5 sculpture garden.
Since 1987, SFMOMA’s New Work series has provided a platform for artists to experiment with a new idea or body of work. The series focuses on the innovative visions of living artists and has played a key role in shaping the breadth and character of the museum’s collection and programming.
Text from : SFMOMA
August 9 - Fall 2025
