DALE HICKEY

Hickey studied design and illustration at Swinburne Technical College, Melbourne, between 1954 and 1957. For the next two years he worked as a graphic designer in industry and with ABC television. He undertook further art study in the United States and Europe in 1971 and 1977. Over the years the subject matter of his art has changed greatly. At various times he has painted landscapes, but in the late 1970s he chose the bush at Cottlesbridge, close to his Melbourne outer suburban home at Eltham, as the subject for a series of paintings.

With his graphics background, Hickey's art has retained a concern for surface quality, so much so that his works oscillate between being paintings of flat patterns and three-dimensional objects. He has a conceptual approach to the subject matter of his art, that is, the notion that the idea or concept of the painting is more important than the finished work. Two fellow Melbourne artists who share this concern are Robert Rooney and Ti Parks. Like most artists, a wide range of artistic styles have influenced Hickey - impressionism, naturalism, tonalism, minimalism, etc. On the surface some of these art 'isms' appear opposed to each other, but Hickey has taken from them what he needs for his individual artistic style.

Dale Hickey - Curriculum Vitae

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2010 Melbourne Art Fair, John Buckley Gallery, Melbourne
2007 Life in a Box (Retrospective), Ian Potter Centre, Melbourne University
2004 Dale Hickey: New Paintings, John Buckley Fine Art, Melbourne
2003 Dale Hickey: New Paintings 2002-2003, John Buckley Fine Art, Melbourne
1999 Dale Hickey: Recent Work, John Buckley Fine Art, Melbourne
1994 Dale Hickey Drawings, Robert Lindsay Gallery, Melbourne
1991 Dale Hickey: Paintings and Drawings, Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney
1990 Dale Hickey: Paintings, Robert Steele Gallery, Adelaide
1990 Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1988-89 Dale Hickey: A Retrospective Exhibition, City of Ballaarat Fine Art Gallery, Ballarat, Victoria; Monash University Gallery, Melbourne: Manly City Art Gallery, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
1990 Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1990 Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney
1988 Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1986 Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1986 Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney
1985 Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne
1983 Rex Irwin Gallery, Sydney
1980 Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
1978 Works in Progress—Images of Travel, Realities Gallery, Melbourne
1976 Project 15: Dale Hickey, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1976 Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1973 Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1970 Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1969 Pinacotheca, Melbourne
1967 Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne
1964 Toorak Galleries, Melbourne

Selected Group Exhibitions

2010 Endless Present: Robert Rooney and Conceptual Art, National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne
2004 Inaugural Exhibition, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Yarra Valley, Victoria
2004 Echo, Tarrawarra Museum of Art, Yarra Valley, Victoria
2003 Nocturne, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, Victoria
2002 Fieldwork: Contemporary Australian Art in the NGV 1968 – 2002, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1998 Material Perfection: Minimal Art & its Aftermath, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth
1997 The Real Thing, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
1993 Arrangement: Australian Still Life 1973–1993, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
1991 Off the Wall, In the Air: A Seventies Selection, Monash University Gallery and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne
1989 Free Style: Australian Art 60s to Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1987 Field to Figuration: Australian Art 1960-1986, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Minimal Art in Australia: A Contemplative Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane
1985 Victorian Vision: 1834 Onwards, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1984 The Field Now, Museum of Modern Art at Heide, Melbourne
1983-84 Recent Australian Art: A Survey 1970-1983, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
1983 A Melbourne Mood: Cool Contemporary Art, Australian National Gallery, Canberra
1981 Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1981 Aspects of New Realism, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and touring
1977 Illusion and Reality, Australian National Gallery, Canberra and touring
1976 Minimal Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1976 Australian Realist Painters, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
1973 Recent Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
1971 The Situation Now: Object or Post Object Art?, Contemporary Art Society Gallery, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1971 I want to leave a nice well-done child here (22 artists), Bonython Galleries, Sydney; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
1971 Four Pinocotheca Artists Using Photography, Inhibodress, Sydney
1968 The Field, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Collections

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Artbank
Australia Council
Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria
Geelong Gallery, Victoria
Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Victoria
Latrobe University, Melbourne
Monash University, Melbourne
Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
National Australia Bank
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle
PricewaterhouseCoopers Australia
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
The University of Melbourne
Victorian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne
Warrnambool Art Gallery, Victoria
Westfarmers, Perth
Westpac, Sydney

Selected Bibliography

Charles Green et. al., Fieldwork: Contemporary Australian Art in the NGV 1968 – 2002, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2002
John Stringer, Material Perfection: Minimal Art & its Aftermath, exhibition catalogue, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth
Chris McAuliffe, ‘The Artist’s Studio: A real allegory’, in Dale Hickey, exhibition catalogue, Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne, 1991
Margaret Plant, ‘Dale Hickey’, in Margaret Rich (ed.), Dale Hickey: A Retrospective Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, City of Ballaarat Fine Art Gallery, 1988
Gary Catalano, ‘On Dale Hickey’, Art and Australia, vol. 17, no. 3, Sydney, 1980, pp.252-257

Awards, Grants, Commissions, Residencies

1991 Creative fellowship, Visual Arts/Craft Board, Australia Council
1987 Grant, Visual Arts/Craft Board, Australia Council
1986 Hugh Williamson Prize, Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria
1980 Cottlesbridge landscape tapestry commission for the National Australia Bank through the Victorian Tapestry Workshop
1977 Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, studio residency, University of Sydney
1975 Grant, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council
1974 Grant, Visual Arts Board, Australia Council