Richard Hawkins

After graduating from Cal Arts, Hawkins worked for a time as a short story writer. Hawkins' art largely consists of sculpture and collage. His works combine "ubiquitous pop-culture images and objects with arcane references and quotes"; frequent themes include "current celebrities, literary lions of yesteryear, haunted houses, Asian sex tourism, Greek and Roman statuary and the American Indian experience". He is gay, and his sexuality also informs his artwork. According to art historian Richard Meyer, Hawkins' "mash-up [of] avant-garde, kitsch and kink", including the use of traditionally feminine consumer items, "challenge[s] us to rethink our hierarchies of value and visual pleasure." Hawkins was instrumental in reviving the work of the late artist Tony Greene, including co-curating (with Catherine Opie) an exhibition of Greene's work that was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial exhibition in New York.

Richard Hawkins studied at University of Texas at Austin and California Institute of the Arts. Places of work recorded in the authority are Los Angeles. Work by Richard Hawkins is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Hessel Museum of Art. Distinctions recorded are Berlin Prize.

• focus: Richard Hawkins: Third Mind, Art Institute of Chicago (2010) • Third Mind, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011) • Hijikata Twist, Tate Liverpool (2014) • Potentialities, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2025/26)

Richard Hawkins is recorded as painter, artist, collagist, ceramicist and draftsperson.