Drawing on extensive historical research and blending fact with fiction, Cynthia Talmadge creates psychologically charged narratives that examine heightened emotional states and their mass media representations. Often painted in her signature Pointillist technique, she constructs elaborate environments that possess the atmospheric quality of a distant memory or cinematic vision. Through subjects ranging from celebrity rehabilitation centers and funeral parlors to imagined diplomatic settings, Talmadge transforms private experiences of anxiety, loss, obsession, and desire into compelling spaces for collective reflection.

Talmadge was recently selected as the recipient of the Addison Artist Council’s 2027 Bartlett H. Hayes Jr. Prize, which includes a solo exhibition at the Addison Gallery of American Art (set to open September 2027), an accompanying publication, an artist residency, and the acquisition of her work.

Additional public collections include the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Columbia University, New York; the Mint Museum, Charlotte; and The Bunker, Palm Beach. She has presented solo exhibitions at Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles; 56 Henry, New York; Carl Kostyál, Milan; Bortolami, New York; and Soft Opening, London, among others. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at various venues including Office Baroque, Antwerp; Mana Contemporary, Jersey City; and Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles.