Hope Hickman is a ceramic artist working in the expanded field of ceramics, based in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds an MFA in Ceramics from Tulane University (2026) and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Akron (2016), though her early training came through informal mentorships with folk artists in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina.
For her sculptural practice, Hickman works predominantly in low-fire red earthenware, hand building each piece and leaving her touch visible on the surface. She mixes her own glazes, favoring granulated lithium mattes, and finishes most work with spray application. Though rare that she makes utilitarian ceramics, for functional work Hope is privy to cone 10 atmospheric firings and heavy reduction.
Since relocating to New Orleans, the city's charged mix of romance, aesthetic seduction, and colonial inheritance has become central to her work. The Gulf South offers daily encounters with colonial fetish objects and the visual language of Southern romanticism, material she draws on directly in her sculptural practice.
