Current students, faculty, and staff
Canadian lens-based artist, educator and independent curator, who passed away on Aug. 15 after a long fight with cancer.
Born in 1955 in Oakville, Ontario, Hickox and her family moved to the Toronto Islands when she was a young child. She studied photography and graphic design at Twickenham College of Technology in London, England and obtained an AOCA degree from OCAD U (when it was known as OCA).
In addition to teaching at OCAD U for more than 30 years, she chaired the OCAD U’s Photography program from 1998 to 2007. At the time of her passing, she was a long-term artist-in-resident at the Gibraltar Point Centre for the Arts and cherished member of that community. In an Instagram post, the Centre noted that “April, you left us heartbroken but full of joy and memories, thank you.”
“April had such a generous and impactful presence in the Photography program and the Faculty of Art. I have fond memories of April mentoring me as a new faculty member earlier in my career. Her passing will be strongly felt by faculty, students and alum,” says Interim Dean of the Faculty of Art Philippe Blanchard.
Associate Professor of Contemporary Painting Practice Michelle Forsyth remembers the longtime faculty member as “a graceful force in the world who was a champion for artists, colleagues and students.”
AN ACCOMPLISHED CAREER AS A VISUAL ARTIST
Over the course of her career, which spanned over 40 years, Hickox mined the distinctions between personal and public sites through film, video, photography and installation.
Her work with objects and still life was rooted in narrative histories that individuals accumulate throughout their lives and the ability of inanimate objects to shape memory. She was also known as a landscape photographer who explored notions of the wild and what we know wilderness to be.
Hickox’s work also reflected her deep interest in the climate crisis, environmental issues, land stewardship, and our relationship to natural elements. She lived and worked on the Toronto Islands all her life, exploring and documenting this urban park.
This was evident in Vantage Point – Passing, a body of work of video and still images she created over 17 years. Through repetitive image making, she observed and recorded the changes of the overlapping layers of human and natural histories embedded in the landscape. The images serve as a record of a groyne that extends into Lake Ontario from Centre Island on the Toronto Islands and record the changes in this landmark.
Of this series, she said: “My work strives to question what is ‘wild’, and how we are renegotiating our relationship with our environment, demonstrating how – with our help – nature is reinvented.”
“As a visual artist, her work reflected the depth of her spirit – vibrant, thoughtful and profoundly human. April touched countless lives and while her absence is immeasurable, so is the legacy of creativity, care and connection she leaves behind,” wrote OCAD U Lecturer Nicholas Pye in an Instagram post. He knew Hickox for close to 30 years.
Hickox produced numerous landscape series in Carolinian forest areas, including Hancock Woodlands, Point Pelee and the Toronto Islands, where she has been engaged with an extensive series of work titled Invasive Species.
INSTALLATION AT DONLANDS STATION
She was selected to create work as part of Toronto Transit Commission’s planned art installations at five of its stations. Hickox’s work, Field, was recently installed at the Donlands station.
Field is a photographic painting on glass comprised of flora, meadow flowers, Indigenous plants, birds and insects. The work both references the history of the neighbourhood and the development of Withrow Park as an environmental site. The work hopes to evoke a contemplative space, an oasis within the functional space of the subway.
The components of Field are arranged in a way that is intended to provide the viewer or passerby with a sense of lying in a field looking up. Plants and flowers reach into the composition from all sides, layered with fallen petals and seeds of renewal. Seasonal change is implied as winter, spring, summer, and fall are represented by the life cycles of the flora.
AN ACTIVE COMMUNITY LEADER AND MENTOR
An active community leader, Hickox was founding director of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, and a founding member of Tenth Muse Studio and Artscape Toronto. She was also a member of the curatorial board of Art With Heart, Casey House.
“April knew how to bring people together and build communities. A powerhouse and a big heart in one human. Her class on Toronto Island was that class that shaped one’s world and artistic practice. Thank you for the love and friendship, April. I know you will continue,” remembers OCAD U graduate Inga Gircyte who was Hickox’s teaching assistant for her course on Toronto Island.
In his Instagram post remembering Hickox, Pye wrote that “April was a true community builder, with a rare gift for bringing people together and creating spaces of belonging rooted in compassion and kindness.”
“April was my teacher throughout the 1990s. I loved the multiple classes she taught on Saturdays where she would bring in lots of photo books, slides and take us to galleries. It was a day of inspiration, hanging out with someone you love and admire, whilst being able to make your work with her guidance,” says friend, former student and OCAD U alum Iza Iseri, who also taught Photography at OCAD U alongside Hickox. “I adored and admired April; her ability to connect with people, her kindness, her strength, being a single mother who raised an amazing woman, and her work. She was always busy but gave you her full attention. I was so very lucky to have known her.”
Former student Ellen Snowball says “April was a mother-friend to many of us wayward OCAD U kids – ‘you might be adopted’ – she used to say. Her island home was decorated with the coziest of bobbins, framed by overgrown gardens and a roaming feline here or there. She was curious about imperfection, an archivist of well-lived objects and a lighthouse for those orphaned from belonging. When you spoke to her, she pierced into you with the rich sparkle of knowing eyes, a skill only a wisdom-keeper would have … April was a true life teacher; a friend, a confidant, a warm embrace, a gentle reminder and a push when you needed it the most. She led outside of the confines of what many of us thought was possible, beckoning us to lead our exploration with hearts full of compassion.”
A RICH LEGACY
Notable recent exhibitions included Harbourfront Centre, Winnipeg Art Gallery, MacLaren Art Centre, Oakville Galleries, Tom Thompson Memorial Art Gallery and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography. Most recently her video work was shown at the Surrey Art Gallery in Surrey, British Columbia.
A survey solo exhibition of her photographs was curated by Crystal Mowry for the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. Her work was recently included in the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s exhibition, In Her Own Words, curated by Tobi Bruce and featuring the work of several Canadian women artists.
Her works are held in the Art Gallery of Peterborough, Art Gallery of Hamilton Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, Canada Council Art Bank, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Agnes Etherington Art Centre and Burnaby Art Gallery.
CELEBRATION OF LIFE
OCAD U extends its deepest condolences to Hickox’s family, including daughter Alexandra, friends and colleagues on the passing of this beloved visual artist and educator.
Hickox’s family is organizing a Celebration of Life to coincide with the artist’s April 24 birthday in 2026 on the Toronto Islands.
This fall, OCAD U is organizing a Celebration of Life to recognize and celebrate Hickox this fall. More details will be shared on the OCAD U website.
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