FELIX LOS ANGELES 2026

Charles Hickey: Drawing the Curtains

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Feia is proud to present Drawing the Curtains, a solo exhibition of new and recent works by Charles Hickey at Felix Art Fair, 2026. Hickey, a Los Angeles based artist, works at the intersection of painting, sculpture, and design. His practice centers on the 3D pen - a handheld tool that extrudes colored plastic - to create works that merge the immediacy of drawing, the history of painting, and the materiality of sculpture.

For Felix, Feia and Hickey present a total intervention of a Roosevelt Hotel Cabana. Bedside lamps designed by Hickey replace the standard lighting. Plastic and oil paintings line the walls, referencing canonical still lifes through a thick, process-heavy lens. In the bathroom, familiar objects - carefully rendered in drawn plastic - reintroduce intimacy and slowness to often-overlooked rituals. Nothing in the space is passive as every object, functional or sculptural, contributes to the composition of the room as a whole. Drawing the Curtains embodies the shared spirit of Feia and Felix: artist-driven, materially curious, and spatially integrated. Hickey’s work lives precisely within this world as he doesn’t simply place objects in a room or in his compositions; he transforms the room into the artwork. This is clear from his recent solo exhibition at Albertz Benda - a site-specific mixed media intervention in a bathroom - which was included in Artnet’s “Shows to See During Frieze Week 2024”. 

Hickey’s pieces are grounded in an ongoing conversation with the still life tradition against the everyday inundation of present-day visual culture. His compositions frequently nod to the Old Masters, reinterpreting their formal concerns using contemporary tools. Hickey places, for example, a Picasso masterwork into the composition the same way he does an apple. As an apple can be a tie in to fertility in Greek mythology, reference Adam and Eve’s temptation, or even speak to Cézanne’s color studies, a Van Gogh inside one of Hickey’s paintings becomes a symbol of technique, rhythm, and color.

Drawing the Curtains provides a meditation on material and memory, while acting as a playful reimagining of how art lives alongside us. The show gives Felix visitors a moment of immersion, care, and humor by providing an environment that encourages stillness, attention, and renewed engagement with the act of looking.

Charles Hickey

Charles Hickey (b. 1995, Atlanta, GA) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Long Beach, CA. Engaging with how we see and represent objects in space, Hickey pulls from the traditions of still life as an armature on which to experiment and communicate. By recontextualizing work from museum collections in his own paintings, Hickey is interested in how we can hold onto a singular image and give it continued attention amongst the inundation of visual noise around us every day. Hickey received a BFA from Winthrop University in 2017 and an MFA from Syracuse University in 2020. Recent exhibitions include shows at Albertz Benda (Los Angeles), David Lusk Gallery (Nashville), and Field Projects (New York City). Hickey’s work has been featured in Artnet, Artsy, Coveteur, and Friend of the Artist.

Feia

Founded by husband-duo Thomas Martinez Pilnik and Jake Cavallo, Feia celebrates failure, brings people together, and curates beautiful spaces with unconventional features.  Feia, meaning Ugly in Portuguese,  is more than just an insult. It expresses curiosity, intrigue, excitement, novelty, beauty, disgust, and everything in between. Feia is currently building a brand new 1200 square foot gallery in Los Angeles to serve as its permanent exhibition site. The space will open in May 2026 in Highland Park.