Cynthia Hawkins delves into the dynamic interplay of color, light, and spatial perception within two-dimensional abstraction. Her work navigates between abstraction and non-objective art, integrating references from natural forms, astronomical charts, and interstellar landscapes alongside formal elements like color, line, and shape. This fusion allows her to reimagine spatial relationships and positionality on the canvas with depth and nuance. Hawkins likens her visual compositions to musical forms like jazz, where elements such as call and response, movement, and rhythm shape a dynamic whole. She challenges the misconception that abstraction is inaccessible, instead highlighting its rich expressive qualities and historical roots, particularly its connection to African motifs and the legacy of artists like Aaron Douglas. Her process is informed by a wide array of scientific and symbolic influences, including astrophysics, microbiology, concepts of space-time, ancient cave symbols, and mathematics. By drawing on these diverse sources, Hawkins creates deeply layered works that invite viewers to reconsider how space and reality are depicted and experienced through abstraction. ...
francesca kaufmann gallery opened in January 2000. Since then, the gallery has aimed to explore a diverse range of media, with a focus on video, site specific installation, and a special attention towards the works of female artists. After ten years in its historical location, the gallery opened in a new space in October 2010, under the name kaufmann repetto, to mark the partnership between Francesca Kaufmann and Chiara Repetto. In its new location, the gallery has been able to further develop its exhibition programming through a project space dedicated predominantly to younger artists, as well as a courtyard for large scale outdoor installations, which run parallel to the gallery’s main exhibition schedule. In 2013, the gallery inaugurated a new location in Chelsea, New York, with a parallel program to the gallery’s main space in Milan. In 2019 the New York location moved to Tribeca, expanding to a 3,000 sq ft exhibition space. The inaugural exhibition at the gallery’s new space in Tribeca was a solo show by Lily van der Stokker. ...
