About the Artist and Exhibition:

Jay Hickey (1989), is a First Nations Gulidjan man based in Lara, Victoria, and is an artist concerned with exploring autobiographical content through mediums of paint and text. Influenced by his ancestry, his journal, and favourite songs and poems, Hickey’s paintings are as much free-flowing acts of creativity, as they are planned and mapped out.

In 2020 Hickey suffered a serious bike accident that saw him forced into readjusting his physical activities during his recovery, thus adopting an art practice in order to express himself. Utilising several avenues of self-expression through his chosen medium of paint, Hickey pushes himself outside of his own comfort zones adding text that represents his feelings, experiences, and moods. The making processes for him are as meaningful and important as the outcomes, reflecting acts of healing, self-discovery, and self-ownership.

His first solo exhibition ‘I was happy when I made this’ is a showcase of his large, and growing, collection of paintings to date. Recovering from surgeries due to his accident, Hickey says his paintings give him purpose and keep him on track when his past behaviour says he should have lost control.

Courtesy of friend and artist Hayley Millar Baker @hayleymillarbaker

View the Catalogue for ‘I Was Happy When I Made This’ by Jay Hickey here (please note, sales for this catalogue have now closed)

For available works by Jay Hickey, please contact the artist directly