Work by UW–Madison’s Hitchcock featured in exhibition at Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee


The work of UW–Madison’s John Hitchcock is featured in a solo exhibition, “Shouting Lightning from Their Eyes,” at the Portrait Society Gallery of Contemporary Art in Milwaukee through Apr. 17.

John Hitchcock, "We Can Be What is Not Yet," 2020
“We Can Be What is Not Yet” is one of Hitchcock’s works that is featured in an exhibition through Apr. 17 at the Portrait Society Gallery in Milwaukee.

Hitchcock is a professor with the School of Education’s Art Department and is the School’s associate dean for the arts.

In the exhibition, Hitchcock uses the print medium with its long history of commenting on social and political issues to explore his relationships to community, land, and culture. His artwork consists of abstract representations, mythological hybrid creatures, and military weaponry, and is based on childhood memories and stories of growing up in the Wichita Mountains of Oklahoma on Comanche Tribal lands next to the U.S. field artillery military base, Fort Sill.

The exhibition includes unique, hand-painted prints, neon sculpture, and textiles. Many of the images are interpretations of stories told by his Kiowa/Comanche grandparents and abstract representations influenced by beadwork, land, and culture.

The exhibition is described as “a lament for the dead and the living. A visual poem in remembrance of friends, family and ancestors.”

The Portrait Society Gallery is open Thursday through Saturday between 12 and 5 p.m. Learn more about how to view the exhibition, here.

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