Yellow division, by Jesse Hickman

Jesse Hickman is an American artist born in Chicago, now living in northern Michigan. Trained in photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago in the late 1970s, he developed a largely self-taught practice, fueled by a particular attention to modest materials and essential gestures. Influenced by art brut, he creates paintings on salvaged objects such as sunflower seed bags, burlap, and worn paper. These supports become the ground for an exploration of line, rhythm, and form. Charcoal, tar, paint, and carbon paper enrich his refined compositions with their materiality, where each element seems reduced to its most accurate expression. Through a practice based on restraint and economy of means, Jesse Hickman reveals the poetic potential of everyday materials and transforms the familiar into sensitive abstractions.