Biography
John Hitchcock was born in 1967 in Lawton, Oklahoma. He is a contemporary artist and musician. He earned his MFA in printmaking and photography at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas and received his BFA from Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma. He has been the recipient of The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration grant, New York; Jerome Foundation Grant, Minnesota; the Creative Arts Award and Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts at the University of Wisconsin. He is currently an Artist and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he teaches screen-printing, relief cut, and installation art.
Hitchcock currently works in multimedia, including neon, textiles, printmaking, sound, and video, to reclaim narratives of resilience and survival. He uses visual storytelling to understand his relationships with community, land, and culture. Abstract representations, language, and intense colors reference his Kaku’s (Comanche grandmother’s) beadwork and childhood memories of growing up in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma on Comanche Tribal lands next to the US field artillery military base Ft. Sill. Many of the images are interpretations of stories told by his Kiowa and Comanche grandparents, as well as abstract representations influenced by beadwork and intercultural identities. Embracing contemporary materials and creative practices while honoring his ancestors, he presents a celebratory aesthetic of cultural hybridity and survival.
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2023-24
Blankett Songs, the Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Minnesota.
Horse Songs at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri.
Blanket Songs, the Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, Louisiana.
The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Native Artists, curated by Jaune
Quick-to-See Smith, National Gallery, Washington, will travel to New Britain Museum of American, New Britain, Connecticut. (2023-2024)
Native Futures, Center for Native Futures, Chicago, Illinois.
2023
Blanket Songs, Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin, catalog.
Horse Songs, 2nd Story, Curated by Leah Kolb, Lexington, Kentucky.
Blanket Songs, Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University Bloomington.
Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts Biennial, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.
Here in a Homemade Forest: Common Reading Connections, Artworks from the Crow’s Shadow
Institute of the Arts at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU in Pullman, Washington.
2022-2024
Belonging to the Land, Madison Municipal Building, Madison, Wisconsin.
2022
Above and Below the Land, Native Nations Center, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.
2021
Shouting Lightning from Their Eyes, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, LH Horton Jr. Gallery, San Joaquin Delta
College, Stockton, California.
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Watermark Art Center, Miikanan Gallery, Bemidji, Minnesota.
2020-21
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon (catalog).
2020
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Saint John’s Art Center, Saint Johns Minnesota.
John Hitchcock was born in 1967 in Lawton, Oklahoma. He is a contemporary artist and musician. He earned his MFA in printmaking and photography at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas and received his BFA from Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma. He has been the recipient of The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration grant, New York; Jerome Foundation Grant, Minnesota; the Creative Arts Award and Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts at the University of Wisconsin. He is currently an Artist and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he teaches screen-printing, relief cut, and installation art.
Hitchcock currently works in multimedia, including neon, textiles, printmaking, sound, and video, to reclaim narratives of resilience and survival. He uses visual storytelling to understand his relationships with community, land, and culture. Abstract representations, language, and intense colors reference his Kaku’s (Comanche grandmother’s) beadwork and childhood memories of growing up in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma on Comanche Tribal lands next to the US field artillery military base Ft. Sill. Many of the images are interpretations of stories told by his Kiowa and Comanche grandparents, as well as abstract representations influenced by beadwork and intercultural identities. Embracing contemporary materials and creative practices while honoring his ancestors, he presents a celebratory aesthetic of cultural hybridity and survival.
Recent Shows and/or Exhibitions
2023-24
Blankett Songs, the Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Minnesota.
Horse Songs at Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri.
Blanket Songs, the Masur Museum of Art, Monroe, Louisiana.
The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Native Artists, curated by Jaune
Quick-to-See Smith, National Gallery, Washington, will travel to New Britain Museum of American, New Britain, Connecticut. (2023-2024)
Native Futures, Center for Native Futures, Chicago, Illinois.
2023
Blanket Songs, Edgewood College, Madison, Wisconsin, catalog.
Horse Songs, 2nd Story, Curated by Leah Kolb, Lexington, Kentucky.
Blanket Songs, Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University Bloomington.
Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts Biennial, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University, Salem, Oregon.
Here in a Homemade Forest: Common Reading Connections, Artworks from the Crow’s Shadow
Institute of the Arts at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU in Pullman, Washington.
2022-2024
Belonging to the Land, Madison Municipal Building, Madison, Wisconsin.
2022
Above and Below the Land, Native Nations Center, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma.
2021
Shouting Lightning from Their Eyes, Portrait Society Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, LH Horton Jr. Gallery, San Joaquin Delta
College, Stockton, California.
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Watermark Art Center, Miikanan Gallery, Bemidji, Minnesota.
2020-21
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon (catalog).
2020
Bury the Hatchet/Prayer for my P’Ah-Be, Saint John’s Art Center, Saint Johns Minnesota.