Meg Hitchcock: Shrine

Les Yeux du Monde is pleased to present Shrine, a solo exhibition of new work by New York–based gallery artist Meg Hitchcock, on view from September 6 through October 5, 2025. In Shrine, Hitchcock presents a body of new work that includes two- and three-dimensional paintings, works on paper, and text-based pieces, reflecting the breadth of her multidisciplinary practice and her ongoing investigation of spirituality, psychology, and the human condition.

A focal point of the exhibition is a new series of relief paintings in which Hitchcock builds up geometric forms on mat board, pushing them beyond the flat surface into three-dimensional space. These planes cast real shadows across painted gradients that suggest light sources, creating an interplay that blurs the line between the actual and the illusory. “Inspired by religious iconography, I explore light and shadow as a metaphor for humanity, with its many complexities and contradictions,” the artist writes. “I borrow the reverse perspective of Byzantine icon painting to create subtle shifts in perception, where the viewer becomes the vanishing point, self-contained and slightly removed.” In these works, perspective lines radiate outward rather than converging in the distance, creating a sense of projection that invites inward reflection and measured self-awareness. Their palette, informed by the Renaissance and Mannerist masters Hitchcock studied in Florence, is built through thin, layered applications of pigment, producing a luminous, resonant effect. Together, form, shadow, and color prompt reflection on perception, reality, and the spiritual dimensions of human experience.

Alongside her paintings, Hitchcock presents intricately constructed “text drawings,” for which she has received significant recognition. In these works, letters—cut from one literary or sacred text—are meticulously arranged to form passages from another, transforming language into a visual medium that invites meditation on the layered meanings of both texts. From a distance, the individually-cut letters coalesce into recognizable forms—for instance, water, waves, or circular, mandala-like patterns—while up close, viewers can recognize and read specific, assembled lines of text. The passage of time is implied, as one contemplates the careful cutting and placing of each individual letter, period, and comma, through Hitchcock’s meditative and repetitive creative practice. Cementing the significance of her text-based work, Hitchcock recently completed a major commission for the University of Virginia’s new Contemplative Sciences Center: a monumental diptych, The Sea, Parts I and II, in which letters cut from two epic texts—Virgil’s Aeneid and Homer’s Odyssey—are meticulously arranged to form contemporary poems about water and reflection in the visual shape of waves. Spanning ten feet, this text drawing—the largest she has created to date—is now part of the permanent collection of the University of Virginia, within a fitting setting dedicated to the study of contemplative practices.

Meg Hitchcock holds a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute and studied classical painting in Florence, Italy. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including MASS MoCA, the Currier Museum of Art, the CODA Museum (Netherlands), Virginia MOCA, and Crystal Bridges Museum, where she was included in State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now. Recognized with numerous awards, Hitchcock is the recipient of a 2024 Pollock-Krasner Grant and a 2023 Gottlieb Foundation Grant. Her work has been reviewed in important publications including Art in America, ArtCritical, The New Criterion, Huffington Post, and Hyperallergic, and is held in significant public and private collections, including the University of Virginia’s new Contemplative Sciences Center.