ARTIST STATEMENT
I paint, draw, print, photograph, and take inspiration from the natural world. Plants, in particular, speak to me. I am interested in the interconnectedness of all life, and the complex entanglements of the human and the non-human.
Part of my daily practice has long been a walk through the nature preserve where I live. Over the past year this has evolved into the heart of my practice. The fleeting and temporal nature of the observed world, along with the impossible desire to name my perceptions, inspires me to examine the nature of this place as fully as possible, across and through multiple scaffolds of time. I have approached this examination within the framework of a rule-based approach. I visit the preserve repeatedly during all 24 hours of the day, all types of weather. I take note of the lichen on a branch, the quality of light on the snow, the color of the air. I pay attention to both details and to the larger scale of the ecosystem. At times I take note of my own feelings and thoughts while there, or the sense I have of being made more whole just by being there.
In the process I have encountered, and, at times, embraced, the ongoing conceptualization of nature. At other times I am representing the landscape as a place of tender beauty, an idealization of suburban nature into inspirational wilderness. With every passing day my concern over climate change intensifies, and I paint to represent what we still have and what we can lose. At this moment, as our culture has become more removed from nature, there is an increased acknowledgement of the collective need for connection with the natural world. The overarching desire to reconnect to the natural world, to be at one with it-and the impossibility of that desire-is at the center of my practice.
BIO
Cynthia MacCollum/Bio
cynthiamaccollum.com
Cynthia MacCollum is a painter, printmaker, and photographer who lives and works in New Canaan, CT. Her work has been shown at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, NY; the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT; Elisa Contemporary Art, NY; First Street Gallery in New York; The Kellogg Gallery at Cal Poly Pomona, Blue Print Gallery in Dallas, Panopticon Gallery in Boston, and internationally in Cadaques, Spain, the UK, France and Hong Kong. In 2013 Cynthia’s work was selected by curator Donald Kuspit, one of 32 pieces out of thousands of submissions, to be part of the First Street Gallery National Juried Exhibit in New York City.
As a child, MacCollum spent countless hours out of doors, often near the creek in the ravine behind her home. This early connection to nature instilled a reverence for the natural world that pervades all of her work. MacCollum’s daily habit of walking through the nature preserve near her home has informed and inspired much of her work over the last several years.
MacCollum is a member of New Canaan’s Silvermine Guild, the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, and Odetta Digital. A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis with a major in Art History and a minor in Fine Art, she has continued her studies at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, and through monthly critiques with the CritLab. Artist Residencies for three summers, at the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts in Skopelos, Greece, have deepened MacCollum’s interest in the intersection of nature and art, and of painting, printmaking, and alternative processes. In addition to private collections, her work can be found in the Fine Art Collection of the Montefiore Health System and Memorial Sloane Kettering.
Cynthia MacCollum
Solo and Group Exhibits
2021 Thirteen Moons, solo exhibit, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2021 Flowers and Flyers, Elisa Contemporary Art, Riverdale, NY
2020 Affordable Art Fair, Elisa Contemporary Art, NY, NY
2019 Shades of Blue, Panopticon Gallery, Boston, MA
2019 Affordable Art Fair, Elisa Contemporary Art, NY, NY
2019 Spring Prologue, 2 Person exhibit, ArtWORKS Gallery, Norwalk, CT
2018 Live Auction, Monothon, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2017 Artists Showcase, Group Show, Avenue Gallery, Norwalk, CT; Invitational
2016 Flora & Fauna, Nest Arts Factory, Bridgeport, CT; Invitational
2016 Spring Fling, Group Show, Avenue Gallery, Norwalk, CT; Invitational
2015 ART On The Line, Invitational International Art Show and Exhibit, The Space, Hong Kong
2015 ART SHOW: BEDFORD, Benefit, Bedford, NY; Invitational
2015 Full Bloom: The Artist’s View of Gilded Age Botanicals; Lockwood Matthews Mansion Museum, Norwalk, CT
2014 New Members Exhibition, Silvermine Guild Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2014 Continuum, Solo Show, H. Pelham Curtis Gallery, New Canaan, CT
2014 On and Off the Wall, First Street Gallery, New York, NY; Invitational
2014 Spring Fling, Group Show, The Avenue Gallery, Norwalk, CT; Invitational
2014 Works on Paper, The Road Gallery, New York, NY; Invitational
2012 Panorama, Members Show, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2010 Members Show, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
Juried Exhibitions
2022 Intimacies, MAPspace, Port Chester, NY
2021 Spinning Plates; Odetta Digital, Artsy.net
2021 Page-Turner: Odetta Digital, Artsy.net
2021 Flow; Odetta Digital, Artsy.net
2021 Art Essex; George Billis Gallery, Westport, CT
2020 International Biennial Footprint Exhibit, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2019 The Edge Effect, Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY
2019 Site: Brooklyn, Works on Paper, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Spectrum, Works on Paper, New Canaan, CT
2018 Silvermine Guild Juried Member Exhibit, Susan Ely, Juror
2018 Spectrum, Carraige Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2016 New Work/New Directions, Juried Members Exhibit, Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT
2015 Annual Mini Print International, Cadaques, Spain and Bages, France
2015 Spectrum, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2014 International Biennial Footprint Exhibit, Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2013 In the Layers, Juried Members Exhibit, Silvermine Guild Galleries, New Canaan, CT
2013 Ink and Clay 39, Kellogg Gallery, California Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA; juried show
2013 National Juried Exhibition, First Street Gallery, New York, NY, Donald Kuspit, Juror
2013 Spectrum, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT.
*Awarded First Prize for Works on Paper
2013 Sea and Sky, Liz Afif Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Spectrum, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2012 American Pastoral, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2010 Members Show, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
Residencies
2017 and 2016 Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Skopelos, Greece
Affiliations
Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT
Elisa Contemporary Art, Riverdale, NY
Blue Print Gallery, Dallas, TX
Lionheart Gallery, Bedford, NY
Related Experience
2000-2006 Homefires Rugs, Atlanta, GA, Licensed and Proprietary Rug Design
2000-2001 Sylvestri, Boston, MA and Asia Society of New York, NY, Licensed Designs
1995-1999 Totes Umbrellas, Cincinnati, OH, Licensed Designs
1994-2002 Hang the Moon Art by Cynthia MacCollum, Head Designer and CEO, Norwalk, CT
Education
2005-2013 Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT
2010 Santa Reparata International School of Art, Intensive Printmaking Workshop, Florence, Italy
1993 Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY
1987 Washington University in St Louis, BA, History of Art, St. Louis, MO