Petrina Hicks, born in 1972 is an Australian photographer making work about the female image. She previously worked as a commercial photographer and in her work the visual language of advertising and the classical motifs collide.
Her delicate sugared-almond hues belie a dark unsettling undercurrent. At first her glance her world is smooth and flawless, but danger lurks nearby. Voices are swallowed, snakes entwine bodies, and faces and identities are often hidden by symbols of fertility and sexuality.
The show ‘Bleached Gothic’ reviewed the first 15 years of her career, at the National Gallery of Victoria, in Melbourne and was on display September 2019 – March 2020.
Main Image: Shenae and Jade, 2005 
Peaches and Velvet, 2018 
L: Peach study, 2018; R: Lauren in blue, 2006 
Gloss, 2011 
Venus, 2013 
Cleopatra, 2019 
The unbearable lightness of being, 2015 
L: Persephone, 2015 ; R: The beauty of history, 2010
