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The Unbearable Lightness of Being

In this latest collection of work I examine the fragility of the human condition. Simple shapes of nude models are set against stark studio backgrounds bringing to mind mankind’s time-old quest to achieve immortality through sculpture. However in these works the sculptural human form - traditionally carved from marble or stone - is shown to be fragile and impermanent.

In the work titled The Unbearable Lightness of Being the nude figure of a woman lies across ancient stone vessels, her smooth skin pressed against their rough, weathered sides. The vessels have already survived centuries and the solid shapes they were cast in will endure whereas the woman’s body will change as she ages, then decay after her death.

Similarly in the Copper and Brass series of works I explore how metal jewellery and objects can retain the same lustre and appearance as when they were first made. In contrast their past owners have melted into history. New wrists that wear the bracelets and hands that pour the jugs will also fade and be replaced. Only the objects will remain present and unchanged.

Ancient myths and symbols play an important part in this body of work - Persephone appears as two sheaves of wheat and Minerva as an owl, the sinuous bodies of snakes suggest fertility, healing and rebirth.

I am fascinated by how the immediacy of symbols and the longevity of myths are intertwined. In an instant a symbol can convey stories that have been retold for millennia.

Generations have heard the myth of Persephone emerging in the Spring to return back into the earth after harvest time. In the work Harvest rough, coarse wheat stalks contrast with the smooth, supple body of the nude. Year after year crops are re-sown, germinate, grow and are gathered in but the woman pictured has a set lifespan that will expire and cannot be renewed.

Petrina Hicks, May 2015

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Petrina Hicks Copper and Brass III, 2015100 x 100cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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Petrina Hicks Serpentina II, 2015100 x 100cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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Petrina Hicks Minerva, 201577 x 100cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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Petrina Hicks Serpentina I, 2015100 x 100cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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Petrina Hicks Copper and Brass I, 2015100 x 100cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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Petrina Hicks Harvest, 201577 x 100cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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Petrina Hicks Persephone, 2015 100 x 77cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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Petrina HicksVenom, 2015

100 x 77cmPigment Print

edition of 8 + AP

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Petrina Hicks The Unbearable Lightness of Being, 201577 x 100cmPigment Printedition of 8 + AP

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PETRINA HICKS

Born 1972, Sydney, Australia

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015 The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Michael Reid, Sydney, Australia, Berlin, Germany

2013 Selected Works – Petrina Hicks, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne, Australia The Shadows, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2012 Petrina Hicks – Selected Works, Venn Gallery, Perth, Australia

2011 Hippy and the Snake, Helen Gory Galerie, Melbourne, Australia Beautiful Creatures, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2010 Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Stills Gallery, Australia Every Rose Has Its Thorn, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany

2008 Petrina Hicks, The Descendants, Stills Gallery, Australia

2007 Flawless, Museum of Brisbane, Australia 2006-2007

2006 Petrina Hicks, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia Petrina Hicks: Australia-Japan, The Exchange of Viewpoints, Early Gallery, Osaka, Japan

2005 Stills Gallery at Seippel Galerie, Cologne, Germany Petrina Hicks, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia

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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2015 Wall Power: Significant Contemporary Australian Photography & Photo Media - Michael Reid, Sydney, Australia

2014 New Passports New Photography, Art Gallery of Western Australia The Kennedy Prize, Stomping Ground Studios, Adelaide, Australia TIDAL: City of Devonport Art Award, Devonport Regional Gallery, Australia Cats and Dogs: Olsen Irwin Gallery, NSW, Australia In the Flesh, National Portrait Gallery, ACT, Australia New Acquisitions, Dubbo Regional Gallery, NSW, Australia Bowness Prize, Monash Gallery of Art, VIC, Australia Fictions, Parer Place Urban Screens, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, QLD Fictions, Parer Place Urban Screens, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, QLD, Australia Melbourne Art Fair, VIC, Australia Private Assembly: a contemporary collection, Tweed Regional Gallery, NSW, Australia Muswellbrook Photograhy Award, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, NSW, Australia Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Gallery, Australia 38th Alice Prize, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, Australia

2013 Guirguis New Art Prize, Post Office Gallery, University of Ballarat, Victoria Internationell Konst Film Utställning, Jönköping Läns Museum, Sweden National Artists Self Portrait Prize 2013, UQ Art Museum, The University of Queensland, Australia The Substation Contemporary Art Prize, VIC, Australia Bowness Prize, Monash Gallery of Art, VIC, Australia Olive Cotton Award, Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW, Australia Under my Skin, Contemporary Australian Photography from the Corrigan Collection, Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia

2012 The PICA Salon, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia The Substation Contemporary Art Prize, Victoria, Australia Art Platform Los Angeles, USA Mechanica Visionem, Atopia, Oslo, Norway Philanthropy: The Art of Giving, Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia South of the Border, Queensland Centre for Photography, Brisbane, Australia Animal/Human, University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia Photo LA, Los Angeles, California Hijacked III, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia Hijacked III, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia

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Hijacked III, QUAD Gallery, Derby, UK Hijacked III Photofusion Gallery, London, UK Clermont-Ferand Short Film Festival, France Videoformes Festival, France Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia

2011 2011 Double Vision, McClelland Gallery, Victoria, Australia What's in a Face, Art Gallery of NSW, Australia Fotoseptiembre, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City Season 11, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia London Australia Film Festival - Artists Film program - The Barbican London 17th International Contemporary Art Festival SESC_Videobrasil: Southern Panoramas competitive exhibition, Sao Paulo Silent Feathers, Maroondah Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia

2010 Timelines: NGV International, Melbourne, Australia Pingyao International Photography Festival, China Approaches, Centre Cultural Caja Puerta Real, Granada, Spain XIV Biennial of Photography, Mexico Present Tense, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia Every Rose has it’s Thorn, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany Snapshot, Contemporary Photography from the La Trobe University Art Collection, Victoria

2009 Thirteen, Stills Gallery, Australia Step Right Up: The Circus in Australian Art, Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW Moran Contemporary Photographic Prize, State Library, NSW Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia Looking at Others, and Looking Within, Murdoch University, Western Australia

National Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Australia Josephine Ulrick & Win Shubert Photography Award, Gold Coast Art Gallery, Australia. New Commissions: Permanent Collection, National Portrait Gallery, Australia

2008 Wish you were here, Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW Proof of Age, Albury Regional Art Gallery Paris Photo, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris WINNER 2008 ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award, ABN Amro, Sydney Contemporary Australia: Optimism, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Australia Step Right Up: The Circus in Australian Art, Albury Art Gallery, NSW Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia

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2007 Silence, ABA Art Contemporani, Palma de Mallorca, Spain C International Photo Magazine Exhibition, Phillips de Pury, New York, USA Olive Cotton Award, Tweed River Art Gallery Fremantle Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre Often Spotted, Rarely Seen, La Trobe University Art Museum Hazelhurst Art Award, Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Arts Centre City of Hobart Art Prize, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Art Cologne 2007, Cologne, Germany Girl Band, curated by Barbara Flynn, Deloitte's, Sydney 2006-2007 Pet Project, Australian Centre for Photography and touring to Arc One Gallery, Melbourne for Melbourne International Arts Festival 2006-2007 The Polaroid Circus, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst

2006 Circus Polaroids - Petrina Hicks & Anne Zahalka, An Albury Regional Gallery Touring Exhibition, Australia Group Show, Stills Gallery, Sydney, Australia Art Cologne 2006, Cologne, Germany Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne, Australia City of Perth Photomedia Award Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts Perth, Australia William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne, Australia 2006 ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award, ABN Amro, Sydney and Melbourne, Australia Truth and Likeness, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, Australia Light Sensitive: Contemporary Australian Photography from the Loti Smorgon Fund, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia In Cold Light, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, Australia Citigroup Portrait Prize, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia Sydney Life, Art & About, City of Sydney Public Arts Program, Sydney, Australia

2005 2005 Year in Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, National Trust Centre, Sydney, Australia Sydney Life, Art & About, City of Sydney Public Arts Program, Sydney, Australia Colour(less), Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Lake Macquarie, Australia Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Foundationfor the Arts Photography Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery We are all animals, La Trobe Visual Arts Centre Gallery, Bendigo, Australia Take a Good Look, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Lake Macquarie, Australia City of Perth Art Award, PICA Gallery, Perth, Australia

2004 Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, Selected for Acquisition Sydney Life Exhibition, Art & About, City of Sydney Public Arts Program, Sydney, Australia Citigroup Photography Award for Portraiture, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts Photography Award, Gold Coast

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City Art Gallery, Australia ACMP Collection 9, National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia

2003 Fisher's Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Australia Josephine Ulrick Photography Award, Tweed River Art Gallery Willoughby City Art Prize Citigroup Photography Award for Portraiture, Art Gallery of NSW

AWARDS

2009 - 2010 Akademie Schloss Solitude/Fellowship Award Residency, Stuttgart, Germany, October 2009 – May 2010

2008 La Cite, Paris Residency, Art Gallery of NSW WINNER ABN Amro Emerging Artist Award 2008, Sydney, Australia

2004 Sydney Life, Art & About, City of Sydney Public Arts Program, Sydney, Australia

2003 Fisher's Ghost Art Award, Prize for Contemporary Art Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Campbelltown, Australia Josephine Ulrick Photography Award for Portraiture, Tweed River Art Gallery, Tweed River, Australia

COLLECTIONS

ABN Amro Collection

Albury City Gallery, Albury

Artbank, Australia

Art Gallery of New South Wales

ACMP Collections 10, 9 & 7

Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, NSW

City of Monash Collection

Flinders Collection

Gold Coast City Art Gallery, QLD

La Trobe University

National Gallery of Victoria

National Gallery of Australia

Private collections in Australia, Germany, Italy & USA

Queensland Art Gallery - GOMA

Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW

Sir Elton John Private Photography Collection

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JOURNALS & MAGAZINES

Australian Art Collector, Cover, July 2013 Sneaky Magazine, Cover, September 2013 Art Monthly Australia, Cover, Summer 2011 Artist Profile, Season 11 Preview, Issue 17, 2011 Broadsheet, Hippy and the Snake review, 18th November, 2011 Australian Art Collector, Artist Interview, 28th November, 2011 Art Info.com.au, Interview, 16 November, 2011 Eyemazing, cover & story, Netherlands, Winter 2010 issue BLINK, cover & story, Korea, Issue 6, 2011 Rapporto Confidenziale/numer32, 2011 SNAP magazine, Issue 15, Toronto, Canada, 2011 Anne B.Kelly, Huffinton Post, Grotesque Perfection, The Photography of Petrina Hicks Light Journeys, December 2011 Image of Zara II in Vogue Living, Jan/Feb 2010 Eye Mario Cresci, Future Images publication, Motta, 2010 Christopher Chapman, 'Interiors'. Portrait magazine, Issue 31, 2009 Elizabeth Piatti, 'Petrina Hicks'. Zoom Magazine, March - April 2009 Stephen Crafti, 'The important bit is use of space'. The Australian Financial Review, March 2009 Sarah Engledow, ‘Everybody’s Heard About The Bird’. Layne Beachley with Petrina Hicks, Portrait Magazine, Issue 29, Spring 2008 ‘Stills Gallery at Paris Photo’, Harpers Bazaar, December 2008 Judy Annear, ‘Blank Face’, Art and Australia, November 2008 Petrina Hicks, Open Gallery, Spectrum, The Sydney Morning Herald, July 2008 ‘Liberty’, Drome Magazine, N.12, Rome, May 2008 'Scope' (ill.), C international photo magazine, issue 5, Ivory Press, London 2007 'Fashion and Frame: Elton’s Sydney gallery', TimeOut, Sydney December 2007 Andrew Taylor, ‘Quick Draw’, Christmas Gift Guide, The Sydney Morning Herald, November 2007 Andrew Frost, “50 Most Collectable Artists”, Australian Art Collector, Jan - March 2007 Poster Magazine, Issue 13, Spring-Summer 2006-2007 Michael Desmond ‘Truth and Likeness at the National Portrait Gallery’, Capitol Magazine, pages 44-45, Issue 25, Nov-Dec 2006 'Voice's Art Space - Australian Photography: Petrina Hicks', Studio Voice Volume 369, Sept 2006 Carmel Dwyer, “50 Most Collectable Artists”, Australian Art Collector, Jan - March 2006 Michael Desmond, “Is the truth of portraiture vested exclusively in likeness?”, portrait 21, p8 ill., Oct 2006 Cover, Photofile #79 Summer, December 2006

REVIEWS & ARTICLES

Dan Rule, The Age, Petrina Hicks: Hippy and the Snake, The Age, 26 November, 2011 Artist Profile, Season 11 Preview, Issue 17, 2011 Broadsheet, Hippy and the Snake review, 18 November, 2011

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Australian Art Collector, Artist Interview, 28 November, 2011 Michael Fitzgerald, 'Dark Reflections', Time Australia, 22 January, 2007 Megan Backhouse, ‘Cultivating the art of collecting’, The Age, July 31 2006 Robert MacFarlane, ‘The truth of the matter, naked or otherwise’, The Sydney Morning Herald, June 13 2006 Emily Dunn, ‘Youth and Video culture captured in two very different ways’, The Sydney Morning Herald, June 5 2006 Robert MacFarlane, ‘Diverse portraits with a chilly edge', The Sydney Morning, May 3 2005 Sebastian Smee, Weekend Australian, April 23-24, 2005

EXHIBITION CATALOGUES

Shaune Lakin, Gallery Director, Monash Gallery of Art, All about Eve Hippy and the Snake, catalogue essay, November 2011 Melissa Keys, The Descendants, Stills Gallery, June/July 2008 Sandy Edwards, Petrina Hicks, Stills Gallery, June 2006 Light Sensitive, National Gallery of Victoria, 2006 Nandi Theunissen, Pet Project, Australian Centre for Photography, December 2006

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Published to coincide with: Petrina Hicks, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

May 2015Michael Reid Sydney

Michael Reid Berlin

Contact

Michael Reid BerlinAckerstraße 163, D-10115 Berlin, Germany

+49 (0) 175 62 65 100

Michael Reid Sydney44 Roslyn Gardens, Elizabeth Bay, NSW 2011

+61 2 8353 3500

info@michaelreid.com.au michaelreid.com.au

S Y D N E Y B E R L I N