Cynthia Talmadge

Talmadge holds a bachelor of arts in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (2011).[1]

While Talmadge’s primary medium is painting, and she also designs elaborate interior environments for her work. Her 2018 New York solo show 1076 Madison (at 56 HENRY, NY) consisted of eight paintings of the venerable Frank E. Campbell funeral home, which since 1898 has laid to rest prominent New Yorkers from Rudolph Valentino to Aaliyah.[2] The artist’s mournful pointillist exteriors of the landmark building were displayed in a gallery redesigned to mimic the funeral chapel’s interior, with green silk walls, crown moldings, and gray pile carpet.[3] The exhibition later traveled to Frank E. Campell Funeral Chapel.[4][5]

In Talmadge's Four Courtroom Outfits of Anna Delvey (Soft Opening, London, 2019),[6] a purpose-built robotic arm hidden behind a painted five-panel dressing screen tosses items of clothing worn during infamous con-artist Anna Delvey’s courtroom appearances in an endless cycle of cartoon “quick changes.”[7] Her 2017 debut solo show, Leaves of Absence (56 HENRY), consisted of life-sized photographs of meticulously styled sets depicting celebrity rehabs alongside an architectural installation reconstructing a fragment of an imagined room from McLean Hospital.[8] In As the World Turns (Halsey McKay, East Hampton, NY, 2018), she rendered the title sequences from old soap operas in complicated, scaled-up versions of children's sand paintings.[9]

In all these projects, Talmadge channels attempts at personal catharsis through obscure corners of shared cultural history. By viewing a funeral parlor or a treatment center through the conventions of pointillism or midcentury melodramas, she transforms the private inevitability of loss or trauma into something demanding collective examination.

Past solo presentations include As the World Turns, Halsey McKay Gallery, New York (2018),[9] and Leaves of Absence, 56 HENRY (2017).[10]

In 2017 she was featured in 56 HENRY’s booth at NADA Miami.[10] Talmadge is currently represented by 56 HENRY, which featured her in 1076 Madison (2018–19).[11]

Talmadge has participated in group shows at galleries and cultural institutions throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, including Nina Johnson Gallery, Miami; Fisher Parrish, Brooklyn; Tina Kim Gallery, New York; the Architecture & Design School, Free University of Tbilisi, Georgia; the Foam Museum, Amsterdam;[12] Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York;Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Albert Merola Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts; Monya Rowe Gallery, St. Augustine, Florida; Aperture Gallery, New York; Beaconsfield Gallery Vauxhall, London; De Markten, Brussels; JOAN, Los Angeles; LeRoy Neiman Gallery, New York; Atelier Néerlandais, Paris; Pioneer Works, Brooklyn;[13] Superchief Gallery, Los Angeles; and Petrella’s Imports, New York.[1]