John Cichon

John Cichon was born in Hammond, Indiana in 1973. Living in Northwest Indiana, he grew up with the contrasting urban decay of the steel industry alongside the beauty of the Lake Michigan coastline. After Graduate school in 2003, he moved to Chicago and worked at the Art Institute. In 2007, Cichon & his wife moved to New York city in pursuit of better work opportunities and the vibrant East Coast art scene. He spent those early years in New York city freelancing for museums and doing performance and ephemera based artwork. Because of the demands of real life, being a father of two young children, he decided to take a break from exhibiting his artwork and re-access his artistic aspirations and expectations. During that time approximately 2015 to the present, John Cichon was re-awakening himself to what originally made art special for him and that was specifically the process of drawing. Now with renewed vigor, he has been looking to present to the world again his artistic dreams and desires.

My concept for this year’s Art in the Open is to set up a camp at a different location of the Schuylkill Riverbank each day. The campsite will be like a traveling ‘Wunderkammer’ or ‘Elephant’s trunk’ in the sense that I will have drawings, sculpture and flora on display. As well as activities to do like drawing at an easel or constructing a paper mask inspired by local fauna. I myself will transform daily from a fish to a bird and then a butterfly.