ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a record keeper. I track the passage of time, the migration of birds, the decline of native species, and the blooming of spring ephemerals. A sense of place is fundamental in all my work. Painting is how I document and adore the specific natural spaces I inhabit. Adopting a schematic approach allows me to see closely and experience intimately while keeping my solistalgic grief at bay.
 
For It was Evening all Afternoon, I researched all 625 species currently on the CT list of Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern. I devised an idiosyncratic visual metaphor for each taxonomic classification. Reptiles are represented by paintings stored in liquid-filled specimen jars; plant species by a 1” watercolor strip on a 332” Kozo scroll; insect paintings are pinned inside and outside of glassine envelopes. Conservation status is visible in a system for each taxonomic class.   Included in the exhibition is a Zine with information on endangered species, along with specific directions and measures to fight species decline.

In 2021 the Thirteen Moons project became a solo exhibition at the New Canaan Society for the Arts. A 13-month rules-based project, I documented 24 hours of each moon cycle at the Nature Center. This massive installation comprises more than 185 individual works ranging from paintings, plant specimens, sound recordings, to an archive of air. Thirteen Moons attempts to translate my ineffable, almost sacred, experience of nature, while acknowledging the impossibility of doing so.

As a child I routinely visited the plants around my yard and in the forest.  Nowadays I make visits to the Nature Preserve near my home to find the skunk cabbage as it pushes up through melting ice, the unfolding May Apples and unfurling Ferns, the new pink Maple leaves. The spring ephemerals excite me the most until the meadows are filled with Joe-Pye Weed, Ironweed, and Pods of Milkweed.  The impossibility of an unmediated experience of nature, and my passionate need to have one, compels me to spend time enmeshed in nature, noticing, observing, and absorbing. 


BIO


Cynthia MacCollum/Bio
cynthiamaccollum.com
 
With a studio that looks out to the Silvermine river, Cynthia MacCollum lives and creates in New Canaan, CT. MacCollum’s practice focuses on long-term, temporal and research-based installations with an ecological focus.. Adopting a schematic approach, she employs forms of record keeping as she tracks the passage of time, migration of birds, decline of native species, and the blooming of spring ephemerals. Recent solo exhibitions include It was Evening all Afternoon (2024) at MAPSpace in Port Chester, NY, and Thirteen Moon(2021) at the New Canaan Society for the Arts. Group shows include February(2025), Blue Print Gallery, Dallas, TX; Crit Ecologies: Artist, Community, Criticality(2024), Hudson Valley MOCA, Peeskill, NY; and When Darkness and Light are Blue and White(2024), Pearl Conrad Gallery, Ohio State University, Mansfield, OH. 
In 2026 MacCollum was a fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Recipient of the 2026 Micheal Miller scholarship, she will be in fifth residency at the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts in Skopelos, Greece.

 
 
Cynthia MacCollum
cindymaccollum@gmail.com
 
Solo and Group Exhibits
2025 Blue Print Gallery, Dallas, Texas
2024 It was Evening all Afternoon, MAPSpace, Port Chester, NY
2024 When Darkness and Light are Blue and White, Pearl Conrad Gallery, Ohio State University; invitational
2024 Postcards to Venice, Odetta, Venice, Italy
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 

Juried Exhibitions
2024 Crit Ecologies: Artist, Community, Criticality, Hudson Valley MOCA, Peeskill, NY
2023 A Complexity of Joys,  MAPSpace, Port Chester, NY
2023 Spectrum, Carriage Barn Arts Center, New Canaan, CT
2022 Exquisite Codes, Odetta, Aqua, Miami, Miami, FL
2022 Intimacies, MAPspace, Port Chester, NY
2022 Serious Play; Odetta Digital, Artsy.net
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; Akili Tommasino, Juror
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, 
 
Residencies
2026 Virginia Center for Creative Arts
2025, 2018, 2017 and 2016 Skopelos Foundation for the Arts, Skopelos, Greece
2026 recipient of Michael Miller Scholarship at the Skopelos Foundation for the Arts
2023 Nocefresca, Sardinia, Italy
 
Collections
The Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, White Plains, NY
The Fine Art Collection at Montefiore Einstein, Bronx, NY 
Memorial Sloan Kettering, Long Island
The Jack & Sheryl Morris Cancer Center, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
 
Affiliations
Odetta Digital, Artsy.net
Center for Contemporary Printmaking, Norwalk, CT 
Silvermine Galleries, New Canaan, CT
Elisa Contemporary Art, Riverdale, NY
Blue Print Gallery, Dallas, TX