Exhibition - Hawkins/Gonzalez

"Hawkins/Gonzalez" presents the compelling artistic visions of Rochester-based painter, Cynthia Hawkins; and Binghamton-based sculptor, Ronald Gonzalez. This two-person exhibition features 20 paintings and works on paper by Hawkins, alongside over 80 of Gonzalez’s found object sculptures. Cynthia Hawkins’s paintings, continue her extended exploration of mark-making, and long-commitment to abstraction toward a symbolic language of shapes and signs. Ronald Gonzalez’s new series of bed sculptures, showcased in various sizes, exemplify his masterful use of found objects to transform the familiar into a symbol laden with meaning. This juxtaposition invites viewers to engage deeply with two divergent contemporary art practices and explore the nuanced expressions of these exceptional artists.

As Hawkins has stated, "My practice is abstraction. I use a variety of resources to produce my work, including natural forms, astronomic forms, and maps and interstellar locations. My work is a response to the visible and invisible, the known and the mysterious." Her work, informed by a rich palette and explorations of form, embody emotional landscapes that resonate with viewers. Hawkins's long artistic journey reflects a commitment to pushing the boundaries of contemporary painting and her in-depth effort to evoke profound emotional experiences through her work. "I believe art has the power to reach beneath the surface, to connect us to our emotions, our shared humanity, and the mysteries that lie beyond our understanding."

-- Since the 1970s, Hawkins has been invested in an ongoing exploration of spatial relationships through abstract form and color. Finding inspiration in nature and science, Hawkins creates vibrant compositions imbued with movement. A recent recipient of the 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Award for Painting, Hawkins continues to explore the multifaceted potential of abstraction. -Ksenia M. Soboleva, 2023

Gonzalez's sculptures often incorporate unconventional materials, gathering many permutations into an extended series. In this exhibition of never before exhibited works, the humble bed motif becomes a vehicle for exploring the human condition. Gonzalez sheds light on his creative process: "I am fascinated by the emotional quality of objects, and I seek to understand the material essence of the world and our place within it through my work." The varied sizes and textures of his sculptures invite viewers to contemplate the intersections of comfort, vulnerability, materiality, the history and meaning of objects, and the passage of time.

-- Born in1952 in Binghamton, NY with its declining rust belt economy, he was from the outset a solitary maker of unstably hybrid objects in a troubled world of precarious blue collar jobs. Introduced early to the world of relentless physical labor on the assembly line, Gonzalez recalls his father cutting soles at the Endicott Johnson shoe factory (now defunct); and he himself spent many child hood hours making toys and figurines out of sticks and bones, trinkets, things picked up from the street. - Martin Bidney, 2010

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Cynthia Hawkins (b. 1950, Queens, NY) 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 Unites 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); and Gwynfor’s Soup, or the Proximity of Matter, Ortuzar Projects, New York (2023). Hawkins’s work is in numerous public collections, including The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; 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).

Ronald Mario Gonzalez (b. Binghamton, NY) is a contemporary sculptor and installation artist known for generating innovative bodies of work that explore the intersection between found objects and figuration. At the core of the artist's practice is a complex fusion of time worn and abject materials that blend personal memories with an archelogy of past objects into proliferations of mournful and evocative heads, figures, and assemblages. Since the mid-seventies the artist has created elegiac sculptures and installations that are embodiments of mortality, memory, and survival combining elements of both assemblage and bricolage, remaking dated leftovers at hand in a process of dissolution and renewal. Always working in anthropomorphized serial form, the works feature permutations of materials, scale, color, and texture, giving degraded materials human status and presence through improvisation and craft. Gonzalez’s restless investigation of animating materials has produced a disquieting sculptural universe with expressive distressed elements that serve as an existential grounding for representing the human condition.

His work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D C. De Cordova Museum & Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA. Savanna College of Art & Design, Savannah, GA. The Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS. Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MI. Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY. Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, NY. Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, LA. Allan Stone Gallery, NY. Salina Art Center, KS. Jonathan Levine Projects, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ. Intar Gallery, NY. Anthony Brunelli Gallery, Binghamton, NY, The Hudson Walker Gallery of Art, Provincetown, MA. Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva NY, SOFA Art Fair, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY, Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, NY. Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. Spoleto Festival, Charleston, SC. Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, IN. Atlanta College of Art, GA. Gallery 24, Berlin, Cavin Morris Gallery, NY, Alternative Museum, NY. V23 Gallery, London UK, Institute Cultural Peruano Norte Americano, Lima, Peru. Capro Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, California, Art Omi, Ghent, N.Y. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI. Toon Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Muse De Arte Modern, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Galerie Protégé, NY Galerija SULUJ, Belgrade, Serbia, Menier Gallery, London UK, Czong Institute of Contemporary Art, Gimpo-Si, Gyeonggi- do, South Korea, Art Basel Scope, Miami, Fl., Space Millepiani, Rome, Italy, Littlepedia, Los Angeles Convention Center, Los Angles, Ca. Art in Embassies, Benin, Africa, Guerrilla Zoo, Newspeak House, London UK, George Billis Gallery, NY. Sculpture Fields of Nova’s Art. Bridgehampton, NY. Superchief Gallery, NY. Ovalo Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico. Primo Piano Special Projects, Palmieri Foundation, Lecce, Italy, Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata, India, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, Denise Bibro Fine Art, New York, Ethan Cohen Fine Arts Kunsthalle, Beacon, New York.

Exhibition Dates: March 1 - May 4, 2024.