About

Much of my work in painting, drawing, and installation explore environmental change through abstracted forms. “Boneyard” and the “Bloom” (2017) responded to dying coral reef systems. Earlier bodies of work focused on marine ice, frozen architectures undermined by melt and movement. "Waterland" (2015), "Divided Earth" (2014) and "Cracked Prospects" (2013), depict a marine glacier that is dividing and cracking. Widely exhibited, this work was featured in New American Painting in 2013, the New American Painting Blog in 2014, and was nominated for the 2013 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award and the 2015 Contemporary Northwest Art Awards, Portland Art Museum. Born in Orangeburg, SC, I spent my early years in the Southeast U.S. I received a BA at Duke University, an MA at the University of Virginia and an MFA in 2000 at the University of Texas at Austin.

Paintings from "Swamp/Garden" that address the entanglement of social and ecological history  received the Jorden Schnitzer Foundation Black Lives Matter grant and were exhibited at Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at WSU in 2021-22. As Professor at Western Washington University, I teach Painting and Drawing and two interdisciplinary courses, “Art and Ecology,” and “Figure and Symbol,” that use research and field experiences as the basis for studio projects and social practice.

Contact: cynthiacamlin@gmail.com