Contemporary artist Jacob Hicks takes historical depictions of female portraiture subjects and modernizes them in a hyper-realistic fashion as modern-day icons wrapped in fantastic costumes radiating auras of strength and defiance against sexism.
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Figurative painter Jacob Hicks re-imagines historical portraiture, reminiscent of artworks of the High Renaissance period, into fantasy shrouded hyper-realistic modern day artistic manifestos that function as newly formed icons that are no longer bound by antiquated societal views of women and thereby serve as visual iconoclasts shattering the historical objectification of women.
After the 2016 election, Hicks’ art-fueled crusade against sexism and misogyny gave rise to the oil painting series “Women”. The Brooklyn-based oil painter explains that he set out to “paint 100 women as regularly as [he] could in defiance to his [Trump’s] sexism.”
One of the portrait paintings from Hick’s “Women” series caught my attention at the 2019 edition of Art Miami . “Woman #1” – shown below – was on view at the New York Academy of Art‘s (Jacob Hicks is an alum – class of 2012.) booth along with other artworks from the school’s current and past art students.
Hicks’s creative talents extend beyond his magical and provocative portraiture paintings. He teaches art at the Children’s Museum of Art and is the founder/writer at Quantum Art Review. He also maintains a virtual gallery of his paintings and artwork on Instagram.
