Icon – Meg Hitchcock

October 18-November 22, 2025
Opening reception: Saturday, October 18, 1:00-4:00pm

RoCA / Rockland Center for the Arts
27 South Greenbush Rd, West Nyack, NY 10994
Exhibition on view in Gallery One

Artist Statement

In a new series of paintings I expand my geometric forms beyond the two-dimensional surface and express them as three-dimensional structures and wall installations. The forms are no longer trompe-l’oeil, but solid shapes that cast shadows across painted shadows, blurring the line between actual and virtual. Inspired by religious iconography, I explore light and shadow as a metaphor for the duality of human nature, with its many complexities and contradictions. I use inverse perspective borrowed from Byzantine icon painting to create subtle shifts in perception, where the viewer becomes the vanishing point, self-contained and slightly removed. This reversal of perspective transfers the focus from a deity perpetually beyond reach, a theological carrot-and-stick, to the transitional space in front of the painting, where the devotee/viewer is located. My wall installation, Shrine, suggests a similar alternative to the Judeo-Christian paradigm by creating space for reflection.

I studied classical painting in Florence, Italy, where I copied the works of such Renaissance and Mannerist masters as Caravaggio, Correggio, and Pontormo. Their influence profoundly affected my approach to painting, in which I achieve harmonious color gradations by applying numerous layers of pigment. This plays an important role in my paintings and wall installations, where color relationships create vibrations that resonate in the body and allude to the layered complexities of the human condition.

Bio

Meg Hitchcock is a New York-based painter, writer, and curator. 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, and Hyperallergic. Her work is represented by galleries in New York and Virginia, and she recently curated a show at Columbia University, CONTEXT: Art, Books, & Freedom, a show of 15 artists working with text and books, on view through May 2026.

Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat 10am–4pm (Closed Sundays) | Free to the Public

For more information call 845-358-0877  or visit www.rocklandartcenter.org.

RoCA gratefully acknowledges support for its programs from the Leonard Merrill Kurz Foundation. The Rea Charitable Trust, Sarah and Stephen Thomas, The Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation, M&T Bank, The M&T Charitable Foundation, The Dorothy Gillespie Foundation, Walter Cain & Paulo Ribeiro, Kantrowitz, Goldhamer & Graifman P.C., QuietEvents, the Estate of Joan Konner, Lighting Services Inc., the Mark and Jessie Milano Foundation, Zaklin Family Charitable Fund, The County of Rockland, Art Services Group, RoCA members, donors and business members.

RoCA’s programs are made possible, in part, with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature. Funding is also made possible by the County of Rockland.