Andria Hickey

The Banff Centre ~ Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Bldg, 204

Visual Arts Open Lecture Series: Andria Hickey, Independent Curator

When Research Becomes Form: Infrastructural Aesthetics and Research-Based Practice

Join us for an afternoon presentation with Independent Curator Andria Hickey.

In this talk, Hickey reflects on her ongoing curatorial inquiry into the formal language of artworks emerging from research-based practices. She examines how contemporary artists use minimalist and abstract vocabularies to distill complex social, political, and material conditions into objects of revelation and resistance.

Through examples from two past exhibitions, Hickey will explore how formal reduction can amplify conceptual complexity, and how opacity can function as a strategy for critical engagement. From a curatorial perspective, the talk considers exhibition-making and artistic research as parallel processes, each operating as both method and material.

This presentation offers insight into contemporary curatorial thinking and considers how abstraction can serve as a tool for inquiry, resistance, and meaning-making for artists, curators, and audiences.

Hickey is a faculty member for the Winter 2026 Banff Artist in Residence program, a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists and curators at any stage of their career.

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Photo by Melissa Goodwin