The College of Southern Nevada, School of Arts & Letters, and Department of Fine Arts will host an exhibition of fiber and book art by Nacogdoches, Texas based artist and Stephen F. Austin State University Associate Professor of Art and Coordinator of Foundations, Candace Hicks. Candace Hicks: Notes for String Theory will open on Friday, February 16, 2024, and run through Saturday, April 20, 2024, in the Artspace Gallery on the North Las Vegas Campus of the College of Southern Nevada. A special Artist Talk and Reception with light refreshments will take place on Monday, February 26, 2024, starting at 6 p.m.
Candace Hicks earned her Master of Fine Arts Degree from Texas Christian University and her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Austin College in Sherman, Texas. She collects coincidences from the books she reads and gathers them in her artists’ books and installations. She is an Associate Professor of Art and Coordinator of Foundations at Stephen F. Austin State University where she teaches foundational courses in two-dimensional media. Her books are in collections including the Museum of Modern Art New York and many universities special collections including those at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford.
With respect to her work, Hicks explains, “I once read two unrelated books in a row that both contained the phrase “black currant lozenge.” Unlikely synchronicities seem to happen to me often, and that’s true in part because I expect them. My work centers on being a reader of fiction. Literature informs every project. Artist’s books and writing complement imagery and objects. Text allows me to explore in depth the ways we construct meaning from mundane coincidences. Inspired by genre fiction, I critically assess the morality of our obsession with murder mysteries and investigate the ways that science fiction has a hold on our collective imagination to a greater extent than fact. To complicate the reader/viewer experience I encode text within interactive exhibits, populate dioramas with invisible ink clues, and create baffling optical illusions. Privileging craft traditions I employ embroidery, quilling, and paper constructions to illustrate interconnected stories. Regardless of medium I am forever exploring our complex relationship with storytelling.”
The CSN Artspace Gallery is free, family friendly, and open to the public. Gallery hours are from 8 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. The Artspace Gallery is upstairs above the main entrance lobby on the North Las Vegas campus located at 3200 E. Cheyenne Avenue, one-mile East of I-15 North.
For more information, please call (702) 651-4146
http://www.csn.edu/artgallery
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