biography
Cynthia Hawkins’ artworks explore the potentials of mixing abstraction and non-objectivity in painting. Hawkins often approaches her creative process with a premeditated strategy, while still leaving room for improvisation, aiming to continuously develop her strong painting vocabulary. Hawkins holds a doctorate in American Studies from the University of Buffalo, SUNY, and is longtime teacher, curator, and scholar. Her academic interests ultimately led her to study the history of abstract painting in the 20th century, which stimulated in her artistic practice a constant, formal reinvention of techniques as a fundamental task of painting. Today, Hawkins paintings are compositions that evolve into distinct layers, as divergent realities are reveled through transparencies and breaks across the canvas.
Hawkins was a part of the Black-owned gallery scene in New York City during the 1970s and the ’80s; exhibiting at Just Above Midtown (JAM), Cinque Gallery, and Kenkeleba Gallery. Hawkins early works dwelt on fundamentals of space and spacetime, investigating three and four dimensional movements, while the late ’90s saw a shift towards the abstraction of references from the physical world. Re-inventing forms taken from astrophysics, microbiology, ancient cave painting, and mathematics, Hawkins built an ecosystem of forms mixing symbols, signs, geometric counters, and calligraphic marks. Hawkins compares the approach of abstraction in visual arts to jazz music, where “elements are call and response, movements, and color. They create and orchestrate a compositional whole that results in a musical composition, or a two dimensional composition of color, lines and shape”.
Hawkins overturns the assumption of figuration as a political approach, using the non-objectivity of her chromatic forms as a social chance for the painting. The interconnectedness between the numerous elements in the composition elevate the painterly beyond mere expressionism: “I might open a door to an alternative way of thinking and looking.”
selected exhibitions
Hawkins’ solo exhibitions include Signs of Civilization, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla (2019); Clusters: Stellar and Earthly, Buffalo Science Museum, Buffalo (2009); Selected Works: 1990 – 1996, Queens College Art Center, Queens College, Flushing (1997). Her work has been included in Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2022); Women Enchanting the Muses, Clark Atlanta University Art Gallery, Atalanta (2013); 25 Years of African American Art, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (1995).
public collections
Hawkins’ work is in many permanent collections, including The Horseman Foundation, st. louis; La Grange Art Museum, La Grange; Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery, SUNY Geneseo; Experimental Printmaking Institution, Lafayette College, Easton; Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, CUNY, Queens College, New York; Rockland Community College, SUNY; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Kenkeleba Gallery, New York; Trinity Lutheran Church, New Milford; Frances Wolfson Art Center, Miami-Dade Community College, Miami; Department of State, Washington; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; The Printmaking Workshop, New York.
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Cynthia Hawkins (b. 1950 New York) lives and works in Rochester, New york
upcoming solo exhibitions
2024
Wander/Wonder: Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D, KAUFMANN REPETTO, MILAN
Selected solo exhibitions
2024
Cynthia Hawkins: New Work, Stars Gallery, Los Angeles
2023
Cynthia Hawkins: Gwynfor’s Soup And The Proximity Of Matter, Ortuzar Projects, New York
2022
Natural Things: 1996-1999, Stars Gallery, Los Angeles
2016
Cynthia Hawkins, New Work from the Butter flyHouse, Apartment One, Livingston Art Center, Mount Morris
2010
Signs of Civilization, Universidad de las Americas, Puebla
2009
Clusters: Stellar and Earthly, Buffalo Science Museum, Atrium Gallery, Buffalo
2008
Cynthia Hawkins: 1997 – 2007, Joy Gallery, Rochester
2007
*Clusters, Walsh Gallery, Walsh Library, Seton Hall University
2004
*Clusters: Paintings and Drawings, Sharon Miller Gallery, Montclair
*Clusters: Paintings and Drawings, Wilmer Jennings Gallery, New York
2002
Cynthia Hawkins: New Work, Foxglove Gallery, Stroudsburg
1997
Selected Works: 1990 – 1996, Queens College Art Center, Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, Flushing
1996
Prints from VCCA Residency, The Shallow Gallery, Rockland Community College, Suffern
1993
The Calling, Trinity Lutheran Church, New Milford
1991
Meditations: Works on Paper, Essex Community College, Essex
1989
New Works: The Currency of Meaning, Cinque Gallery, New York
1986
Cynthia Hawkins, Frances Wolfson Art Center, Miami-Dade Community College, Miami
1981
Cynthia Hawkins, Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery, New York
1974
Drawings, Paul Klapper Library, Queens College, New York
Selected group exhibitions
2023
The Inseparables, Stars Gallery, Los Angeles
2022
Frieze Masters, London, Ortuzar Projects, New York
Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces, Museum of Modern Art, New York
Painting in New York, 1971-1983, Karma Gallery, New York
2021
The Permanent Collection, La Grange Museum of Art, La Grange
radical Vision and Imagination: Black Abstract Art of the 21st Century, Warburton Galerie, Yonkers
Creating Community Cinque Gallery Artists, Art Student’s League
2020
The Currency of Meaning and Other Tales, Wilmer Jennings Gallery, New York
Faculty and Staff Exhibition 2020, Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery, Geneseo
2014
Facing the Rising Sun, Wilmer Jennings Gallery, New York
2013
From the Studio: Faculty Exhibition, Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery, SUNY, Geneseo
Paper Works, Wilmer Jennings Gallery at Kenkeleba, New York
Women Enchanting the Muses, Clark Atlanta University Art Galleries, Atlanta
2010
Selected Works on Paper, The Hungerford Urban Artists Building, Rochester
2009
From the Studio: Faculty Exhibition, Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery, SUNY, Geneseo
2007
From the Studio: Faculty Exhibition, Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery, SUNY, Geneseo
More Than A Book: Imagination, Tools, Creation, traveling exhibition, Experimental Printmaking Institute, Lafayette College, MaryAnn Miller, curator
2006
Some Serious Business, NCC, Bethlehem
Artists Books from EPI, Skillman Library, Lafayette College, Easton
For Love and Peace of Mind, O.G.T., New York
2001
A Life in Art, Lehigh University, Bethlehem
2000
Nine Chose Nine, Rockland Center for the Arts, West Nyack
1999
InClement Weather, Rush Art Foundation, New York, NY
Ellarslie Open, Trenton City Museum, Trenton, NJ
1997
The Aljira National 3, Aljira – A Center for Contemporary Art
Newark Talk Back! The Community Responds to the Permanent Collection, Part iII, The Bronx Museum of the Art, Bronx
Talk Back! The Community Responds to the Permanent Collection, Part II, The Bronx Museum of the Art, Bronx
1996
Art from the Colonies, The Rotunda of Rockland Community College Library, RCC, Suffern
Faculty Art, College Art Gallery, The College at New Paltz, New Paltz
Two Person Exhibition, Hopper House, Nyack, NY, Community College, Suffern
A Black American Perspective, Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, Mt. Kisco
1995
Faculty Exhibition, Northern Westchester Center for the Arts, Mt. Kisco
The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African American Art, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth
Black Pearls: Treasures of African-American Women Artists, Cinque Gallery
National Print and Drawing Exhibition and Competition, University of Notre Dame at Baltimore, Baltimore
Art New York: A Multicultural Perspective, Rotunda at Rockland Comm. College, Suffern
1994
Building the Collection: Recent Acquisitions and Selected Works from the Permanent Collection, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx
Works on Paper, Cynthia Hawkins and Maren Hassinger, Peg Alston Fine Art, The Forman Gallery, Hartwick College, Oneonta
African American Image, Nabisco Gallery, East Hanover
The Art of Photography and Painting, The New City Library, New City
1993
Artists Select, Artists Space, New York
Women of the Americas, Arts Alliance of Haverstraw, Haverstraw
The 25th Anniversary Exhibition: Recent Acquisitions and Selected Works from The Studio Museum in Harlem Collection, New York
An Artistic Presentation of Sensuality, The Stairway Gallery, New Milford
The Studio Museum in Harlem: 25 Years of African American Art, Paine-Webber Gallery
Each Surface Hides a Story, New City Library, New City
1992
Uncommon Ground, City Hall courtyard Galleries, Baltimore Kromah Gallery, Baltimore
1991
The Mystic Vision, Artscape ‘91, Decker Gallery, Baltimore
Spring 1991 Juried Exhibition, School 33 Art Center, Baltimore
Cynthia Hawkins and Page Fleming, Gallery at The Mechanic Theatre, Baltimore
1990
From the Print Collection, Dome Gallery, New York, NY
Black Women in the Arts 1990, Montclair State College, Montclair
Manifestations and Influences, The Printmaking Workshop at The Harlem School for the Arts, New York
1989
Desire, Aljira Gallery, Newark
From the Studio: Then and Now, PepsiCo Gallery, Purchase
1988
From the Studio: Artist in Residence 1987-1988, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1987
Selections, Artists Space, New York
1986
Small Scale Abstraction, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, New York
Progressions: A Cultural Legacy, Women’s Caucus on the Arts, Clocktower, New York
1985
Carnival: Ritual of Reversal, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
Atlanta Life Insurance Company Exhibition and Competition, Atlanta
1984
Paper, Clay and Steel, Jamie Szoke Gallery, New York
Collectors Exhibition, Mississippi Museum of Art, New York
1984 Hawkins/Epstein/Romero, Jamie Szoke Gallery, New York
Four Views, Augusta Savage Gallery, University of Mass. at Amherst, Amherst
1982
Atlanta Life Insurance Company Exhibition and Competition, Atlanta
1980
Outlaw Aesthetics, Just Above Midtown/Downtown Gallery, New York
Three Episodes: Afro-American Art, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx
1979
Remains, Emily Lowe Gallery, Hempstead
1978
Summer Show: It’s a Crowd, Just Above Midtown, New York, NY
1973
Ten Women, Queens College Gallery, New York, NY
Selected collections
The Horseman Foundation
The La Grange Art Museum, La Grange
Bertha V.B. Lederer Gallery, SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo
Experimental Printmaking Institution, Lafayette College, Easton
Benjamin S. Rosenthal Library, CUNY, Queens College, New York
Rockland Community College, SUNY
The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York
Kenkeleba Gallery, New York
Trinity Lutheran Church, New Milford
Frances Wolfson Art Center, Miami-Dade Community College, Miami
Department of State, Washington, DC
The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
The Printmaking Workshop, New York
Prizes
Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship, 2009
Rockland Community College Award for Artistic Excellence, 1996
The Herbert and Irene Wheeler Grant, 1995
Rockland Community College Award for Artistic Excellence, 1995, 1994
Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship, United States Department of Education (Full Academic Fellowship) 1990-1992
Atlanta Life Insurance Company, Exhibition and Competition, Atlanta, GA (2nd place Mixed Media 1984)
Provincetown Workshop Scholarship, Provincetown, MA (Painting 1975)
Brooklyn Museum Art School Scholarship, Brooklyn, NY (Watercolor 1972)
