From BGSU GALLERIES
John Hitchcock, a contemporary artist and musician of Comanche, Kiowa and Northern European descent based out of Madison, Wisconsin, will give an artist’s talk Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. in BGSU Fine Arts Center, Room 204.
John Hitchcock’s work is displayed with other indigenous artists as part of the BGSU’s exhibition, Giving VOICE: Native American Prints from Crow’s Shadow Institute of the Arts. Giving VOICE showcases recent Native American prints from Crow’s Shadow Institute of Art, located on the Umatilla Reservation in northeastern Oregon. With its roots in collaborative practice and community, Crow’s Shadow was established in 1992 by James Lavadour (Walla Walla) and Phillip Cash (Cayuse and Nez Perce) to foster economic and cultural development for Native American artists. Since its founding the Institute has grown into an internationally acclaimed printmaking atelier that is widely recognized for its role in sustaining contemporary indigenous visual art.
The exhibition runs through Sunday, November 6, 2022 and is accompanied by a full-color catalog.
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 to community, land, and culture. Hitchcock’s artwork consists of abstract representations, language and intense color referencing his Kaku’s (Comanche grandmothers) beadwork and regalia. His artworks are based on his childhood memories and stories of growing up in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma on Comanche Tribal lands next to the US field artillery military base Fort Sill. Many of the images are interpretations of stories told by his Kiowa/Comanche grandparents and abstract representations influenced by beadwork and intercultural identities.A Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Hitchcock has served as an Associate Dean of Arts, Faculty Director of The Studio Learning Community and Art Department Graduate Chair. Hitchcock has taught printmaking at UW-Madison since 2001. He holds an MFA degree from Texas Tech University.
Hitchcock has been the recipient of The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration grant, New York; Jerome Foundation Grant, Minnesota; the Creative Arts Award, Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts and the Kellett Mid-Career Award at the University of Wisconsin. Hitchcock’s artwork has been exhibited at numerous venues including the Portland Art Museum, Missoula Art Museum, North Dakota Museum of Art, International Print Center New York, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, American Culture Center in Shanghai, China, Museum of Wisconsin Arts, The Rauschenberg Project Space and Air, Land, Seed in the Venice Biennale 54th International Art at the University of Ca’ Foscari, Venice, Italy.
