Patrick Hickey

My work explores concepts pertaining to identity, masculinity and, importantly, sexuality. Within my work I wish to interrogate the heteronormative visual culture we have become accustomed to. The goal of my paintings is to subvert the norm of the heterosexual male gaze and the objectified female and to depict the male figure as the object of desire - an illicit act of looking.

Northern/Irish cultural assumptions surrounding sexual ‘species’ feed into my studio work. I have struggled with making explicit the sexual desires of the marginalized ‘other’ within these social constrictions. These difficulties led me to invent a fictional story to build my practice upon. Therein lay the possibility to give my characters a freedom that cannot be experienced within heteronormative morality.

I imagine a forest that might act as a safe haven for like-minded males. Here my figures can escape the patriarchal ideals placed upon them by society. They can become the true reflections of themselves. However, as time progresses in this fantastical place the forest becomes a place of danger and uncertainty – the rules have been abandoned allowing mayhem to ensue. It seems that when conventional social structures are overturned, a warped hierarch...

Ulster University, Foundation Studies in Art and Design (2012)

Ulster University, Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Art - Painting (2015)

2016 Raw, Group Show, Catalyst Arts, Belfast

2016 Ephemera, solo show, John Ross & Company, Belfast

2015 Disgrace, Group Show, Framewerk Gallery, Belfast

2015 Last Dance in the Orpheus, Graduate Show, Ulster University, Belfast