Photo credit: Venvi Art Gallery, Tallahassee, FL

Selected Exhibitions

11 Black Printmakers, Fine Arts Building, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA

Blacks: USA: 1973; New York Cultural Center, NY, 1973

Black Untitled III: Graphics; Oakland Museum of Art, CA, 1973

Leon Hicks, Acts of Art, Inc., NY, 1974

Migrations; Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1978

Impressions/Expressions: Black American Graphics; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, 1980

An acclaimed engraver and draughtsman, Leon Hicks is known for his portraits and exploration of everyday life. Since the 1960s, Mr. Hicks has distinguished himself as both an artist and an educator. He emerged during the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s, producing powerful images rooted in self-discovery and social consciousness. He received his bachelor’s degree in art sculpture at the University of Kansas, then went to the University of Iowa for his M.A in art history and M.F.A in printmaking.  By the late 1970s, he was preoccupied with autonomous form and giving his full attention to investigating the language of engraving. Throughout his career, Mr. Hicks has remained a committed student of art history, learning and mastering engraving techniques pioneered by giants like Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669), and Mauricio Lasansky (b.1914), with whom he studied at the University of Iowa. Hicks taught at Concord University, WV; Lehigh University, PA; and Webster University until his retirement in 1999.

His prints have been included in many exhibitions, including Impressions Expressions: Black American Graphics at the Smithsonian Institution and the Studio Museum in Harlem.  An edition of the work, Black Boy, was featured in the exhibition titled Leon Hicks: The Ingenious Line, organized by Fisk University in 2012. The National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, has two of his engravings in their permanent collection, Little Bird and Apogee.