Sheila Hicks was born in Hastings, Nebraska and received her BFA and MFA degrees from Yale University. She received a Fulbright scholarship in 1957–58 to paint in Chile. While in South America she developed her interest in working with fibers. After founding workshops in Mexico, Chile and South Africa and after working in Morocco and India, she now divides her time between her Paris studio and New York. ​

Hicks has exhibited internationally in both solo and group exhibitions. Her work was presented in the Venice Biennale (2017); Whitney Biennial (New York, 2014) and the São Paulo Biennial (2012). Recent solo presentations were presented at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (ongoing, 2024); Josef Albers Museum Quadrat Bottrop (ongoing, 2024); Centre Pompidou (Málaga, 2023); Kunstmuseum Sankt Gallen (2023); The Hepworth Wakefield, (Wakefield, 2022); Musée de la Corderie-Vallois (Rouen, 2022) and the Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2018). The major retrospective Sheila Hicks: 50 Years debuted at the Addison Gallery of American Art in 2008 and traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, US and the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC.

Hicks’ work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City; Museum of Fine Arts Boston; The Art Institute of Chicago; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Museo de Bellas Artes, Santiago; solo exhibitions at the Seoul Art Center, Korea; Israel Museum, Jerusalem.