Meg Hitchcock
Meg Hitchcock: Shrine
6 September – 5 October 2025
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Axis Mundi
Meg Hitchcock, Dorothy Robinson, Kurt Steger
13 May – 25 June 2023
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Meg Hitchcock is a New York-based painter and writer. She is a 2024 Pollock Krasner Grant recipient and a 2023 Gottlieb Foundation Grant recipient. She received a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and studied classical painting in Florence, Italy. Her work with paint and text is an expression of her lifelong interest in religion, psychology, and literature. Hitchcock’s work has been shown nationally and internationally and has been included in shows at MASS MoCA, Currier Museum of Art, CODA Museum (Netherlands), Virginia MOCA, and Crystal Bridges Museum, where she was included in State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now. Her work has been reviewed in numerous publications, including Art in America, ArtCritical, The New Criterion, Huffington Post, Daily Beast, and Hyperallergic. Hitchcock is represented by galleries in New York, Charlottesville, VA, and Charlotte, NC.
CV
Education
1996 BFA, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
1988-89 Fortman and Cecil-Graves Studios, Florence, Italy
Residencies/Grants
2024 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Recipient
2023 Gottieb Foundation Grant Recipient
2022 Foundation for Spirituality and the Arts, Charleston, SC: Artist in Residence
2020 Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY: Artist in Residence
2016 MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA: Artist Residency
2011 Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY: AIM Program
1989 Study Grant: Childe Foundation, Florence, Italy
Public Commission
2024 University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Contemplative Sciences Center
Curatorial
Columbia University Library, NY, NY: CONTEXT: Art, Books, & Freedom
Solo Shows
2026
Hammond Museum, North Salem, NY (September)
2025
Rockland Center of Art, Nyack, NY: Icon
LYDM Gallery, Charlottesville, VA: Shrine
Markel Fine Arts, NY, NY: All That Matters
2024
Argosy Books, NY, NY: Context
2021
Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Kent, CT: New Works on Paper
2020
Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY: Illuminate
2019
Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY: Cathedral
2018
ODETTA, Brooklyn, NY: Fever Songs (with the composer John Morton)
2017
Studio10, Brooklyn, NY: 10,000 Mantras
2015
Studio 10, Brooklyn, NY: Verbatim
Randall Scott Gallery, Baltimore, MD: New Works
2013
Studio 10, Brooklyn, NY: The Land of Bliss
2012
ACA Gallery, New York, NY: Different Voices, Unique Visions
2011
Famous Accountants, Brooklyn, NY: Obsession: The Book of Revelation from the Koran; an installation
Select Group Shows
2026
Mahara&Co., Miami, FL, Read Me, curated by Veronica Sesana Grajales
2025
Bernay Fine Art, Great Garrington, MA: Two to Tango Two
Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, NC: Summer Show
Ligenza Moore, Cold Spring, NY: Destination Earth
Rosebud Contemporary, NY, NY: En Route
Art Spaces at Krasdale, White Plains, NY: A Few More of My Favorite Things
2024
Daphne:art, Litchfield, CT: Chimera
2023
KinoSaito, Verplanck, NY: Art Benefit
Les Yeux du Monde, Charlottesville, VA: Axis Mundi
Monument, Kingston, NY
2022
Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY: The Material, the Thing
Webber Gallery, College of Central Florida, Ocala, FL: Next Text
Metaphor Projects, Brooklyn, NY: MAGIC
2021
Peninsula School of Art, Fish Creek, WI: To the Letter: Text In Art
Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY: One Thing Leads to Another
Fridman Gallery, Beacon, NY: Time Lapse
Ely Center for Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT: Embody
Center for Book Arts, New York, NY: Summer Reading
Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA: She Says: Women, Words, and Power
2020
Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA: 35: Thirty-Five Artists for Thirty-Five Years
Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA: Art of the Book
2019
C24 Gallery, New York, NY: Word Up
Center for Book Arts, New York, NY: Walt Whitman’s Words: Inspiring Artists Today
Ellen Noel Art Museum, Odessa, TX: Sacred Scripts: 1000 Years of Religious Texts
Green Door Gallery, Brooklyn, NY: Refuge
A.I.R. Gallery, Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY: Make Make Make: Repetition and Accumulation
Doug Adams Gallery, Berkeley, CA: Group Show
Laundromat, Miami, FL: To the Letter
Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY: Works On Paper
2018
McKenzie Fine Art, New York, NY: Summer Show
Woskob Gallery, Penn State University, State College, PA: Summer Reading
Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY: Text Me
Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Larchmont, NY: Contemplation and Practice
RAW (Real Art Ways), Hartford, CT: Abductions and Reconstructions
2017
Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH: Deep Cuts: Contemporary Paper Cutting
Gutstein Gallery, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, GA: Take Note
Sun Valley Center for the Arts, Sun Valley, ID: Contemplative Practice
Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY: Alien Nation
Hudson Valley Contemporary Center for Art, Peekskill, NY: Between I & Thou
2016
San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art: This Is Not A Book
White Noise Gallery, Rome Italy: Any Given Book
Schema Projects, Brooklyn, NY: Tower of Babel
MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA: Bibliotechaphilia
CODA Museum, Netherlands: CODA Paper Art
Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY: Reconfigured
Hazan Projects, New York, NY: Text Me
Matteawan Gallery, Beacon, NY: Duets
Seager Gray Gallery, Mill Valley, CA: The Art of the Book
2014
Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR: State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now
Scream, London, UK: Telling Tales
Salisbury University Gallery, Salisbury, MD: TXTED
Friesen Gallery, Sun Valley, ID: Filtered
BBAC, Birmingham, MI: Altered Books
Town Hall Gallery, Boroondara, Australia: Re-Writing the Image
2013
Manresa Gallery, San Francisco, CA: Dialoguing with Sacred Texts
Towson University, Towson, MD: And the Word Is
Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ: Dialogic
Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA: Dialoguing with Sacred Texts
Blanc Gallery, Boston, MA
Design Matters, Los Angeles, CA: Wordplay
2012
Artifact, New York, NY: Aftermath
Studio 10, Brooklyn, NY: Text
BRIC Contemporary Art, New York, NY: Mystics: A Blessed Rage for Order
Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY: Contemplations and Conjectures
2011
Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL: People Don’t Like to Read Art
Bronx Museum, Bronx, NY: AIM Biennial
ACA Gallery, New York, NY: Fragments
Projective City, Paris, France: If Lightning Fell On Low Places
2010
Famous Accountants, Brooklyn, NY: Tunneling
Storefront Gallery, Brooklyn, NY: Science Fiction
2009
NURTUREart, Brooklyn, NY: Bushwick Biennial
Middlesex College, Edison, NJ: Multiply
Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn, NY: Clamoring to Become Visible
Art Fairs
2016
Volta, New York, NY: Solo booth with Studio 10
San Francisco Art Market, San Francisco, CA: with Seager Gray Gallery
2015
Art on Paper, New York, NY: Solo booth with Randall Scott Projects
San Francisco Art Market, San Francisco, CA: with Seager Gray Gallery
2014
Volta, New York, NY: Solo booth with Studio 10
Collections
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Contemplative Sciences Center
Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Library, Yale University
Nouf Al-Saud of the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia
Christopher Rothko, New York, NY
Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR
Lawrence Greenberg, Brooklyn, NY
Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner, San Francisco, CA
Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, CA
In my two- and three-dimensional paintings I explore light and shadow as a metaphor for the human condition, with its many complexities and contradictions. I am interested in the inner transfiguration that takes place apart from theological dogma, leading to higher states of consciousness. Taking my inspiration from religious iconography, I use inverse perspective and conflicting light sources to redirect attention from pictorial space back to the viewer. These subtle shifts in perspective turn the focus inward, where one encounters authenticity and self-realization in their myriad forms. The boxes and geometric shapes cast irreconcilable shadows, creating tension that is harmonized within the overall composition. I often include text cut from sacred books and classic literature, citing passages that speak to both our divine and human natures. While the content is rooted in my former affiliation with organized religion, the work is intentionally ambiguous and open to interpretation. My hope is that we look beyond the contradictory viewpoints to see the humanity that is our common heritage.
Recognitions and Icons
My work explores the shadows of religion, bringing light and compassion to the darker aspects of devotion. My paintings and wall sculptures are intended to draw the viewer into an internal state that transcends the need for salvation. Inspired by Byzantine icons, I use reverse perspective to create subtle shifts in perception, where the viewer becomes the vanishing point, self-contained and slightly removed. This shift in perspective suggests an alternative to the Judeo-Christian paradigm, in which one’s attention is directed toward a deity located just beyond her reach. The viewer is instead located front and center in the transitional space, where she is both the subject of the painting and the object of devotion.
Text Drawings and Illuminated Manuscripts
I began working with sacred texts in 2007, cutting letters from one text to form the writings of another. This “cross-pollination” of holy books has a larger purpose, suggesting that all sacred writings point toward the same source, eliminating the need for exclusivity or intervention. The process of deconstructing sacred texts expresses a broad interpretation of scripture that is inclusive of all faiths. In the Illuminated Manuscripts series, I combine sacred texts with painting, sewing, and burning, rendering a contemporary interpretation of an ancient tradition. But instead of illuminating a long-established, patriarchal religion, I illuminate the state of awareness, the origin and destination of all religions.
2025
Hyperallergic, “10 Art Shows to See In Upstate New York This July”, Taliesin Thomas
Whitehot Magazine, “Chelsea Exhibition Reviews”, Rosebud Gallery, Liam Otero
2021
Shoutout Miami, “Meet Meg Hitchcock: Artist”, Interview
The Press Democrat, “Art From the Past:35 Artists for 35 Years”, Dan Taylor
2020
Art Valley, “Meg Hitchcock: Illuminate at the Garrison Art Center”, Karlyn Benson
2019
Surface Design, “Meg Hitchcock: In the Beginning, There Was the Word”, Kim Power
The New Criterion, The Critic’s Notebook, “Meg Hitchcock at Margaret Thatcher Projects”, James Panero
2017
Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (SARTS), “Reconstructing Sacred Text”, John Shorb
Religion News Service, “Far From the Museum of the Bible…”, S. Brent Rodriguez Plate
2016
The Jealous Curator, “Meg Hitchcock”
Buzzworthy, “Artist Deconstructs Sacred Texts to Show Them in a New Light”
Colossal, “New Text Drawings Formed by Letters from Religious Texts by Meg Hitchcock”
Strictly Paper, “New Cut Paper Religious Rewritings by Meg Hitchcock”
2015
The Boston Globe, “The Library, Illuminated Anew, in Bold Mass MoCA Show”, Stacey Kors
Arte Fuse, “Reconfigured at Margaret Thatcher Projects”, Daniel Gauss
Baltimore City Paper, “Great Scott: Two Very Different Shows”, Rebekah Kirkman and Baynard Woods
2014
Studio International, “Meg Hitchcock: Interview”, Kate Tiernan
Schon Magazine, “Scream London: Telling Tales”, Raoul Keil
2013
Artcritical, “Red Letter Day: Meg Hitchcock’s Cut-and-Pastes from Scripture”, Deven Golden
The New Criterion, “Meg Hitchcock: The Land of Bliss”, James Panero
Hyperallergic, “3 Critic Pick Their Favorites….”
Harper’s Bazaar, Hong Kong, “New York Art Scene: Special Feature”, December Issue
Platinum Cheese, “Art Chat with Meg Hitchcock”
Daily Art Muse, “Meg Hitchcock: Art is the True Religion”, Susan Lomuto
2012
Huffington Post, “Meg Hitchcock Dissects Religious Texts to Create Spiritual Tapestries”
WNYC, “Meg Hitchcock at Famous Accountants Gallery”, mention on radio program
Inhabitat, “Sacred Texts are Dissected and Transformed Into Spiritual Tapestries”, Helen Morgan
Quiet Lunch, “Our Type of Lady”
Design Boom, “Cut and Paste Religious Rewritings by Meg Hitchcock”
2011
Daily Beast, “Is Meditation Selfish?”, Andrew Sullivan
Hyperallergic, “Weaving the Book of Revelation from the Koran”, Daniel Larkin
Gutfire! “Hymns, Mantras, and Meditations: The Art of Meg Hitchcock”
Colossal, “Text Drawings Created by Cutting Thousands of Letters from Books”, Christopher Jobson
2010
Art in America, “Tunneling” at Famous Accountants, Sarah Schmerler
2003
Artweek, “Review: A Street Gallery”, Sandy Thompson
2001
Art in America, “Meg Hitchcock, Quotidian Gallery”, Mark Van Proyen
1999
San Francisco Chronicle, “Art Here and Now”, Kenneth Baker