Cynthia Hawkins

Incorporating her background as a historian and curator, Hawkins' artistic practice grapples with the history of abstraction throughout the 20th century, embracing the task of formal reinvention as a core aspect of painting.

Biography of Cynthia Hawkins

Cynthia Hawkins was born in 1950 in Queens, New York. She earned a BA in Art from CUNY, Queens College, an MFA from Maryland Institute, College of Art, and an MA in Museum Studies from Seton Hall University. Additionally, the artist holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Buffalo, SUNY.

She served as the gallery director and curator at the Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery at SUNY Geneseo. 

Hawkins has presented individual exhibitions at STARS, Los Angeles (2022); Buffalo Science Museum, Buffalo (2009); Cinque Gallery, New York (1989); and Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery, New York (1981).

Her recent solo exhibitions include "Cynthia Hawkins: Gwynfor’s Soup, or The Proximity of Matter" at Ortuzar Projects in New York (2023); "Natural Things, 1996–99" at STARS in Los Angeles (2022); and "Cynthia Hawkins: New Work from the Butterfly House" at Livingston Art Center in Mount Morris, New York (2016), among others.

Her artworks can be found in several public collections, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Kenkeleba Gallery, New York; the La Grange Art Museum, La Grange, Georgia; and the Department of State, Washington, D.C.

Currently, the artist lives and works in Rochester, New York.

Cynthia Hawkins's Art Style

Cynthia Hawkins creates a complex ecosystem of elements in her paintings, incorporating organic symbols, signs, geometric outlines, and calligraphic marks. Her approach goes beyond mere expressionism, aiming to explore the potential of abstraction. Although she often begins a work or series with a predetermined strategy, Hawkins' process-oriented practice also embraces improvisation, enabling the development of a systematic framework for her continually evolving artistic vocabulary.

She combines various painting strategies within a single composition, constructing layers as distinct planar realities. These layers are then unveiled through interruptions or transparencies in their surface tension.

“
My practice is abstraction. I use a variety of resources to produce my work, including natural forms, astronomic forms, and maps and interstellar locations to construct and reconstruct positionality and distance. I combine both non-objective and abstraction methods. Abstraction uses the real to interpret and reinterpret the known world, while a non-objective method refuses the real and instead uses the elements of art to produce art. This construct is similar to the relationship between various musical forms; the difference is presented through forms and methods. 
Cynthia Hawkins
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  • Years:

    Born in 1950

  • Country:

    United States of America, Queens, New York

  • Gallery:

    Ortuzar Projects

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