Cy Gavin

Cy Gavin's artworks serve as allegorical representations of landscapes altered by human intervention, and geological or cosmic occurrences. His paintings feature dynamic and expressive brushstrokes infused with vibrant hues, occasionally notable for their monumental scale.

Biography of Cy Gavin

Born in Pittsburgh in 1985, Cy Gavin was raised in Donora, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2007 and completed his MFA in 2016 at Columbia University. In 2016, he moved to New York's Hudson Valley, where he currently resides and works.

In 2015, following his father's passing a few years prior, Gavin journeyed to his ancestral homeland of Bermuda to delve into his family's lineage and the island's history. His paintings from this period portray significant locations such as Gibbet Island, Crow Lane, and Tucker's Town. Notably, Tucker's Town, once home to a community of Black Bermudians, was demolished in 1920 for the construction of an exclusive golf resort. These artworks reflect themes of enslavement, colonialism, and resistance, shedding light on the establishment and perpetuation of similar power dynamics in the United States.

Gavin's inaugural solo museum exhibition took place at the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado in 2021. The exhibition featured paintings of natural wonders such as a glacial erratic boulder, carried and deposited by a melting ice sheet from the last ice age; a deteriorating stone dam; Comet NEOWISE; and the dark depths of a limestone cavern.

Gavin's painting "Untitled (Snag)" (2022) was included in the 2022 Whitney Biennial.

The artist's recent solo exhibitions have been held at various venues worldwide, including Gagosian in Rome, Gagosian in New York, David Zwirner in London, Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, and VNH Gallery in Paris, among others. 

Additionally, Cy Gavin received The Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize in 2023.