Since 1972, Cynthia Hawkins (b. 1950, Queens, NY) has consistently painted abstractly and in series, exploring diverse literary, philosophical, and scientific influences within a delineated structure. Hawkins’ work utilizes a highly developed vocabulary of symbols and signs to investigate color, movement, and light, and her work is dense with richly evocative meaning. 

In 2025, Hawkins was included in the 36th Bienal de São Paulo and the inaugural exhibition at The Studio Museum in Harlem. She received a BA in painting from the Queens College, City University of New York in 1977 and an MFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 1992. She has exhibited widely in New York and the United States throughout her career, and her one-person exhibitions include Cynthia Hawkins, Just Above Midtown, New York (1981); Cynthia Hawkins, Frances Wolfson Art Center, Miami (1986); New Works: The Currency of Meaning, Cinque Gallery, New York (1989); Selected Works: 1990–1996, Queens College Art Center (1997); Clusters: Stellar and Earthly, Buffalo Science Museum, Buffalo (2009); Natural Things, 1996–99, STARS, Los Angeles (2022); Gwynfor’s Soup, or the Proximity of Matter, Ortuzar Projects, New York (2023); and Cynthia Hawkins: Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (2025).

Hawkins’s work is in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Studio Museum in Harlem and The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Kenkeleba Gallery, New York; The La Grange Art Museum, Georgia; and the Department of State, Washington, D.C. She has received numerous awards, including the Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting (2023); the Black Metropolis Research Consortium Fellowship (2009); The Herbert and Irene Wheeler Grant (1995); and the Brooklyn Museum Art School Scholarship (1972).