John Hitchcock: We Are Defined by the Beat

Home to artist, educator, and musician John Hitchcock (b. 1967), the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache tribal lands of Medicine Park, Oklahoma, lie between the sacred Wichita Mountains and Wildlife Reserve—a refuge for buffalo, deer, and elk—and Fort Sill, a United States Army post and artillery range established in 1869 during the Indian Wars. Within this environment, the sounds of cicadas, birds, and wildlife mingle with the percussion of artillery and helicopters, while the songs of Kiowa and Comanche people echo in counterpoint to military anthems. This coexistence of harmony and dissonance—of nature, culture, and conflict—is central to Hitchcock’s evocative work.

For over three decades, Hitchcock has transformed the sonic and cultural rhythms of his homeland into a distinct visual language. An enrolled member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma with Comanche and Northern European ancestry, Hitchcock merges personal expression with references to intertribal powwows, the Wichita Mountain landscape of his youth, and the symbols and languages of Great Plains Native populations. Working across printmaking, neon, textiles, sound, and video, he merges traditional and contemporary art forms to pay homage to his ancestors, confront histories of Indigenous displacement and trauma, and celebrate community, resilience, and survival.

Marking the artist’s first career survey, John Hitchcock: We Are Defined by the Beat traces Hitchcock’s evolving integration of visual and sonic forms. Important series—including Flatlander (2011–18), Bury the Hatchet (2019–2020), Blanket Songs (2022–2023), Soundscapes (2021-2024), and Celebration (2025)—synchronize sound and image, ritual and resistance. In the exhibition, the “beat” becomes both metaphor and structure—signifying the rhythms of nature, bombs, heartbeats, and life cycles, and the persistence of culture and tradition across generations, through which Indigenous presence endures. Collectively, Hitchcock’s powerful works invite a deeper understanding of identity, land, and belonging in America.