What does it mean to harvest? To reap what one has sowed. In this necessarily positive fulfillment, Mr. David Hicks brings to market a delectable offering of pious meditation on the herbage fulfilled in his Central Coastal California nativity at Diane Rosenstein Gallery. It is in this honest toil towards producing what is necessary for souls which is then transformed, imputed, elevated, with his ideas which leave the natural verdure towards loftier planes – that being of human sensual experience.

In such a consistently earthly toned collage, Mr. Hicks presents us with a menagerie of imaginary forms which nonetheless retain that steadfast fulfillment of the inner impressions of his background. What is, in other words, second nature to a farmer, yet certainly distant to those in cities experiencing his art – and hopefully in a public museum someday! For it is in this inner play, this joy of expanding the boundaries of imaginary discovery, that Mr. Hicks presents his assemblies of shapes, so ceramically anointed that they provide that healthy perspective on good mind.

TERRA COTTA PANEL, 2023
Terracotta, steel, walnut
46 x 48 x 15 inches
116.8 x 122 x 38.1 cm. Courtesy of David Hicks and Diane Rosenstein Gallery. Copyright David Hicks

That the good mind is shaped by our ability to naturally cultivate the land provides such possibilities of similarities to toolshed ornament, yet necessarily in a way which transcends the mundane. That the toil of reaping the harvest, of bringing raw towards transcendental refinement, is the impressive accomplishment with the, not inundation, but plethora of bounty suggested by his forms; each one with their own personality.

CLIPPING (YELLOW BUSH), 2023
Glazed ceramic
20 x 10 x 11 inches
50.8 x 25.4 x 27.9 cm. Courtesy David Hicks and Diane Rosenstein Gallery. Copyright David Hicks.

Indeed, the artist prepares us with personalities with his anthropomorphic figurines; yet the epicenter still resides in his confident expressions of farmer felicity. That one can be proud to till the soil, yet without such an exaggerative, straining expression of celebration of the accomplishment of one’s own handiwork, prepares us for the extension of the real onto surreal objects which are exquisitely sculpted, with such fragrances of earthly colors we cannot help but feel satisfied with the reflected experience.

BLUE SHRUB, 2021
Glazed ceramic
31 x 24 x 24 inches
78.8 x 61 x 61 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Diane Rosenstein Gallery. Copyright David Hicks

That yet, blues occur, but so faintly decided, so demur in approach towards the goal, gives us the idea of what is beautiful in being earthed: an adventurous sense of centeredness being molded and fixed forever good.

For more information, please contact the gallery:

Diane Rosenstein Gallery 

info@dianerosenstein.com

831 N Highland Avenue

Los Angeles CA 90038

t. 323.462.2790