Allen Hicks discovered drawing while a young boy. His early teachers included the leading names of Australian art: John Brack, Ronald Miller, Alun Leach Jones, Terry Batt, and Godwin Bradbeer. Hicks completed a Masters of Fine Art at RMIT (Research) with a focus on post modernism and is represented in private and public collections in Australia and overseas. He also taught art at Mentone Grammar for over 40 years. He has had numerous solo exhibitions; the most recent was at Latrobe Regional Gallery where he had his Tin Cups Series installed.

An accomplished teacher, he is also a committed student and has spent time analysing the work of leading 20th Century artists such as Giorgio Morandi, Georgia O’Keefe and Patrick Heron each of whom have instilled in Hicks a sense of patience and calm respect for nuances of tonal light and its effect on matter. He is drawn to artists work (which like his own) can appear invariably prosaic, but also deliver an unerring sense of proportion and unity, whether simple abstractions or complex fields.

Hicks is an intrepid traveler and has been engaged by Parks and National Geographic to lead expeditions into pristine and uncharted Australian environments. These experiences have made a significant impact on his artistic practice and the confluence of natural elements – light, form and space - remain recurring themes explored in his work. Indeed, this forms the basis for the paintings featured in the current exhibition and deftly enable local familiar and simple subjects, such as container ships on Port Phillip Bay to have their essential qualities heightened. It also forms the basis from which his complex abstracted works achieve their depth and tranquility.

Hicks is a Bayside resident and works from studio near Elwood beach.

CURRICULUM VITAE

ALLEN HICKS
MA (by research – painting), B Ed

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1980 Oz Gallery
1984 Profile Gallery
1990 David Ellis Gallery
1993 Masters Exhibition RMIT Gallery
1998 Piccolo Gallery
2002 Mira Gallery
2004 Albert Park Gallery
2005 Gallery 101
2008 Latrobe Regional Gallery
2018 Alliance Française Du Melbourne

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1981 Caulfield City
1984 Australian Government Selection Show, New York
1985 Finalist, Blake Prize
1985 Scandinavian Print Show Representing Australia
1986 Solander Gallery, Canberra
1986 Finalist, UK Group Show “Spiritual Art” tour
1987 Finalist, Blake Prize
1988 Finalist, Griffin Gallery Drawing Prize
1989 Finalist, Mitchell Union Art Prize, NSW
1991 Lyal Burton Gallery
1992 Finalist, Faber & Castell Drawing Prize
1997 Australian Aboriginal Gallery, Flinders Lane
1997 Makers Mark Gallery
1999 Art Horse Project (100 Oz Artists Selected)
2001 Melbourne Spring Arts Festival – Rollercoaster
2002 The Barn Gallery, Montsalvat – Sense and Serendipity
2002 Masterworks, Montsalvat
2002 Gallery des Refuses, Montsalvat
2003 Albert Park Gallery
2017 Australian Abstract Artists Alliance Française Du Melbourne

COLLECTIONS
Victorian Racing Club
BHP
Ballarat Mining Company
Oxford University
Private Collections, Australia, UK, USA, Germany and F
1997 DNARE, Victoria 1997, National Trust, OUP, Penguin Australia
Smorgan Family 2004 ,City of Port Philip 2005