John Hitchcock: Protectors

June 7, 2018 - September 15, 2018

The Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium

Protectors, a screenprint installation by artist John Hitchcock, uses multiple screenprinted images of bison skulls mounted on a background of Naugahyde pelts. The pelt forms suggest landmasses, and each element connects to the environment through form, placement, and symbol.

Inspired by the long history of social and political commentary within the discipline of printmaking, Madison-based printmaker John Hitchcock uses the print medium to explore relationships of community, land, and culture. Hitchcock’s works on paper and multimedia installations draw upon his Comanche/Kiowa and Northern European heritage and consist of prints and moving image that mediates the trauma of war and the fragility of life. Images of U.S. military weaponry are combined with mythological hybrid creatures from the Wichita Mountains of western Oklahoma to explore notions of assimilation and control.

  • John Hitchcock, The Protectors (Skulls), 2017-18, screenprint on Naugahyde and paper, variable size.

Ongoing Exhibitions

No Time For Despair

Ongoing
No Time For Despair

To say that right now is the ideal time to make art that speaks directly to the people about social justice is an understatement. Because the very nature of art is to undertake or assume the role of a healer by shading light on the human condition.

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Bee in Flight

Ongoing
Bee in Flight

Community artist and school art teacher MeLissa Kossick, who guides youth classes at the Museum on art, gardens, and pollinators, has created an enchanting mosaic design in the Creativity Pathway in the Serkland Gallery called Bee in Flight.

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S.P.A.C.E.

Ongoing
S.P.A.C.E.
Kaleidoscope

The S.P.A.C.E. (Sculpture Pad Art Collaborative Experiment) project is a public art initiative undertaken collaboratively between Plains Art Museum, and the college art departments at North Dakota State University, Minnesota State University Moorhead, and Concordia College.

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The North Dakota Mural

Ongoing
The North Dakota Mural

Drawing on his childhood memories of the Great Plains, he created a work that speaks to the wide open spaces, huge vistas, and ocean-like skies of the region.

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Fragile Preservation

Ongoing
Fragile Preservation
A Tallgrass Community

While the Tallgrass Prairie is a community made up of a great diversity of species, Fragile Preservation represents a selection of them.

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