Cynthia Talmadge
Value#80
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
2/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
7/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
8/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
4/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
4/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
- Pricing
- Auction Record
- $10,080 (September 2022, Phillips)
- Current Context
- Emerging secondary market with limited auction history
- Pricing Trajectory
- Limited data but shows consistent sell-through above estimates. Gallery representation suggests primary market pricing likely $10,000-$50,000+ for unique works based on career level.
- Unique Works Range
- $4,000 - $10,080+
- Edition Prints Range
- $800 - $1,400
- Primary Market Pricing
- Price on Request (typical for gallery-controlled market)
- Auction Results 2022 2024
Title Year Date Result Venue Estimate Medium Performance Size Facade Next to Frank E. Campbell 2017 September 28, 2022 $10,080 Phillips New Now New York $4,000 - $6,000 sand on board Exceeded high estimate by 68% 48 x 33 1/4 in. (121.9 x 84.5 cm) Bath Salts 2018 May 15, 2024 Auction Closed - price not disclosed Auction (venue unspecified) archival pigment print — — Half Light (1964, 1969) 2024 August 3, 2024 Auction Closed - price not disclosed Auction — — — Bath Salts 2018 August 28, 2024 $1,386 Rago Auctions - 21st Century Art Unlimited $800 - $1,200 archival pigment print, edition 25/35 Exceeded high estimate by 16% 24 x 21⅝ in. - Total Auction Lots Tracked
- 4
- Liquidity
- Availability
- Works available through primary galleries with 'Price on Request' model
- Sell Through Rate
- 100% for disclosed results
- Annual Auction Volume
- Very limited (1-4 lots annually)
- Market Characteristics
- Gallery-controlled primary market. Very limited secondary market presence indicates strong gallery control and collector retention.
- Auction History
- Market Trends
- Risk Factors
- Very limited secondary market historyLow auction volume makes price discovery difficultEarly career stage with unproven long-term marketDependence on gallery representation for market support
- Momentum Indicators
- Major museum acquisition (Mint Museum, 2022)Gallery expansion (Bortolami representation 2023)David Zwirner editions program participation (2023)Consistent exhibition schedule with increasing gallery qualityArt Basel Miami Beach presentation (2023)Growing critical attention from major publications
- Market Position
- Market Positioning
- Collector Base
- Contemporary collectors interested in conceptual narrative painting, institutional collectors (museums acquiring work), collectors of meticulous technique and American cultural critique
- Peer Comparisons
- Comparable to mid-career emerging artists with strong gallery representation but limited auction history. Career trajectory similar to artists transitioning from emerging to established status with institutional validation but building secondary market.
- Geographic Markets
- Primary market: New York. Secondary presence: Los Angeles (Marc Selwyn Fine Art), London (Carl Kostyal), Milan (Carl Kostyal), Sweden (Carl Kostyal)
- Investment Outlook
- Concerns
- Limited liquidity, minimal auction track record, early to mid-career risk, gallery-dependent market
- Strengths
- Strong institutional validation, unique technical approach, consistent exhibition record, growing critical recognition, gallery representation quality improving
- Market Maturity
- Early stage - primary market with nascent secondary market
Institutional Presence
The Mint Museum
Charlotte, North CarolinaColumbia University
New York, NYBarnard College
New York, NYThe Bunker Artspace
Palm Beach, Florida- Exhibitions
- Solo Exhibitions
Title Year Dates Venue Location Significance The Complete Works of R. Wilkes-Hunter, A.K.A Caroline Farr... 2025 June 1, 2025 onwards Carl Kostyal Adelsnäs Castle, Sweden Third solo with gallery, debut in Sweden Sail-by Salute 2024 June 1 - August 2, 2024 56 Henry New York Fifth solo exhibition with gallery The Diplomat's Wife 2024 — Marc Selwyn Fine Art Los Angeles First exhibition with West Coast gallery Goodbye to All This: Alan Smithee Off Broadway 2023 January 13 - February 25, 2023 Bortolami Gallery New York First exhibition at prestigious Tribeca gallery Utopia Editions: Cynthia Talmadge 2023 April 28 - May 26, 2023 David Zwirner New York First limited edition print with major gallery Winter Break 2022 October 11 - November 26, 2022 Carl Kostyal London Second solo with gallery, sculptural installation Franklin Fifth Helena 2021 2021-2022 56 Henry New York Room-sized installation later acquired by Mint Museum Seven Sisters 2021 2021 through July 3 Carl Kostyal Milan First exhibition with Carl Kostyal Four Courtroom Outfits of Anna Delvey 2019 2019 Soft Opening London (Piccadilly Circus Underground) — 1076 Madison 2018 2018-2019 56 Henry New York Breakthrough series on Frank E. Campbell funeral home As the World Turns 2018 2018 Halsey McKay Gallery East Hampton, NY — Leaves of Absence 2017 2017 56 Henry New York Debut solo show - Group Exhibitions
Title Venue Location Art Basel Miami Beach 56 Henry booth Miami Frieze Los Angeles Various Los Angeles 2025 Annual Exhibition Andrew Kreps Gallery New York For Mario Tina Kim Gallery New York Hollywood Babylon: A Re-Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome Jeffrey Deitch Los Angeles — Almine Rech New York — Office Baroque Antwerp — HUSSENOT Paris — Mana Contemporary Jersey City — Foam Museum Amsterdam — Nina Johnson Gallery Miami Art on the Grid Public Art Fund New York
- Museum Collections
- Institutional Analysis
- Strong institutional trajectory with museum acquisition at significant regional institution (Mint Museum). Collections include academic institutions (Columbia, Barnard) which provide important validation. Exhibition history shows progression from emerging galleries to more established venues (Bortolami, David Zwirner editions). Limited major museum solo exhibitions but strong group show participation. Not yet in major international museum collections (MoMA, Tate, etc.) but has clear institutional momentum.
- Awards and Recognition
Recognition Year Galerie Magazine 'Next Big Things' - Emerging Artists 2020 Art Production Fund public workshop commission 2025
Career & Biography
- Career
- Career Summary
- Cynthia Talmadge (b. 1989) is a New York-based artist known for paintings, photographs, and installations featuring subject matter from the romantic dark side of contemporary Americana and tabloid culture. Her work exhibits a fascination with heightened emotional states, mediated portrayals of those states, and particularly the places where both converge. She received her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2011 and has since built a strong exhibition record with primary representation by 56 Henry gallery in New York.
- Notable Career Milestones
Year Event 2017 Debut solo show 'Leaves of Absence' at 56 HENRY 2018 Breakthrough series '1076 Madison' depicting Frank E. Campbell funeral home 2022 Major acquisition by Mint Museum, Charlotte ('Franklin Fifth Helena' installation) 2023 First solo exhibition at Bortolami Gallery, New York 2023 First limited edition print with David Zwirner's Utopia Editions 2023 Art Basel Miami Beach presentation with 56 Henry 2025 Public art-making workshop at Rockefeller Center with Art Production Fund (November 8, 2025)
- Identity
- Artistic Media
- Paintings, photographs, installations
- Current Location
- New York, NY
- Signature Technique
- Pointillist sand paintings and oil paintings on linen
- Artistic Context
- Talmadge is interested in the fact that public-facing US institutions can also be the sites of personal existential meltdowns or metaphysical epiphanies, exploring the limitations and failures of vaunted places to actually fulfill the promise of spiritual solace or meaning. She is fascinated with refining and stylizing artifacts from actual lived trauma to the point where they connect to shared cultural vocabularies.
Artistic Profile
- Influences
- Cultural
- Tabloid cultureHollywood and celebrity cultureAmerican institutional architecture (Brutalism in particular)Soap opera aestheticsCold War era American cultureLiterary pseudonyms and pulp fictionTrue crime narratives
- Contemporary
- Research-based artistic practiceNarrative painting resurgencePost-internet engagement with mediated reality
- Art Historical
- Georges Seurat - pointillist techniqueClaude Monet - serial painting, light studiesImpressionism and Post-Impressionism - color theoryMidcentury American melodrama aestheticsRenaissance studiolo traditionMemento mori tradition
- Themes and Subjects
- Primary Subjects
- Dark side of contemporary AmericanaCelebrity culture and tabloid narrativesInstitutional spaces (rehabs, funeral homes, colleges, embassies)Heightened emotional states and traumaPublic vs. private experienceMediated reality and performanceLoss, death, and mourningClass, privilege, and American mythologyFemale experience in institutional contextsPseudonymous identities and constructed personas
- Conceptual Frameworks
- Transformation of private trauma into public spectacleLimitations of commercial/institutional rites in face of genuine lossConvergence of real and performed emotional experienceAmerican cultural pathologyMemento mori tradition in contemporary contextResearch-driven fictional biography construction
- Movements and Periods
- Influenced Artists
- Note
- Too early in career to assess direct influence, but known for mentorship role
- Documented Influence
- Artist
- Anna Weyant
- Outcome
- Weyant went on to major success with Gagosian representation
- Relationship
- Talmadge employed Weyant as studio assistant in 2018, promoted her work on Instagram, introduced her to gallery owner Ellie Rines
- Techniques and Mediums
- Formal Innovations
- Scaling up craft techniques (sand art) to ambitious fine art scale
- Integration of pointillist technique with architectural installation
- Use of historical painting styles to depict contemporary tabloid culture
- Gallery-as-stage-set transformations
- Signature Techniques
Description Examples Technique Hand-mixed colored sand (often from wedding supply companies) meticulously applied with fine paintbrushes. Mimics 19th-century Impressionist/Pointillist color studies. — Pointillist sand painting Traditional oil painting with pointillist/stippling technique — Oil on linen painting Collaboration with architects and designers to create immersive spaces Franklin Fifth Helena (room-sized installation), transformed gallery spaces with period-appropriate interiors Environmental installation Large-scale photographs of meticulously constructed sets Leaves of Absence series Staged photography Cold-painted bronze and tole-style painted sculptural objects Winter Break series with campus fountains and sculptures Painted sculpture
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Monographs
- None published yet
- Critical Themes
- Comparative Artists
- Georges Seurat, Claude Monet (for technique), Ed Ruscha (for American subject matter)
- Recurring Observations
- Comparison to Impressionist masters (Monet, Seurat) for pointillist techniqueExploration of American tabloid culture and cultural tragedyTheatrical, research-driven practiceTension between beauty of technique and darkness of subject matterTransformation of private trauma into public spectacleMeticulous attention to surface and detailOscillation between drama and melodrama, pathos and bathos
- Critical Reception Tone
- Highly positive with serious critical engagement. Critics appreciate both technical mastery and conceptual depth. Work is treated as substantive contribution to contemporary painting discourse.
- Academic Interest
- Growing - collections at Columbia University and Barnard College suggest academic engagement
- Digital Discourse
- Online Coverage
- Extensive coverage on art blogs, gallery websites, and online publications
- Instagram Presence
- 9,997 followers - strong for mid-career emerging artist
- Collector Interest Indicators
- Active online sales platforms, sold-out editions
- Catalogue Raisonne
- No catalogue raisonné (too early in career)
- Publications and Media
- Major Publications
Significance Coverage Publication Leading contemporary art publication Multiple reviews and exhibition listings Artforum Major newspaper art criticism Exhibition reviews and gallery roundups The New York Times Prestigious cultural magazine Exhibition coverage The New Yorker Major art world publication, fair coverage Art Basel Miami Beach booth feature (December 2023) ARTnews Artist-focused publication, long-form critical engagement In-depth interview (March 2022) BOMB Magazine Luxury lifestyle and contemporary art magazine Artist profile and exhibition coverage Cultured Magazine Design and contemporary art publication 2020 'Next Big Things' emerging artist feature, ongoing coverage Galerie Magazine Leading contemporary art magazine Exhibition reviews and features Art in America Online contemporary art publication Exhibition reviews Hyperallergic International contemporary art magazine Exhibition listings and fair coverage Frieze Major cultural coverage Exhibition reviews New York Magazine Design and architecture publication Feature coverage Architectural Digest International contemporary art magazine Exhibition coverage ArtReview
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
- Art Fair Participation
Year Fair 2023 Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 Frieze Los Angeles
- Representation
- Online Platforms
Availability Platform Works available for sale Artspace — Artsy Curated selection of works for sale Platform — Exhibition A — Instagram - Gallery Trajectory
- Artist has shown consistent gallery advancement: started with 56 Henry (emerging NYC gallery) in 2017, expanded to Carl Kostyal (international mid-level) in 2021, exhibited at Bortolami (established contemporary) in 2023, and collaborated with David Zwirner (blue-chip) for editions in 2023. This progression indicates strong gallery confidence and market development.
- Gallery Collaborations
Location Significance Gallery Relationship New York (Tribeca) Step up to more established gallery program Bortolami Solo exhibition 2023 New York Major validation through blue-chip gallery's editions program David Zwirner (Utopia Editions) 2023 print edition - Representation Stability
- Very stable - maintained primary relationship with 56 Henry since 2017 while strategically adding secondary and project-based relationships. This stability is positive for market confidence.
- Secondary Representation
Significance Gallery Relationship Start International expansion, European market development Carl Kostyal 2021 West Coast presence, first exhibition 2024 Marc Selwyn Fine Art 2024
Cynthia Talmadge's fundamentals are strong. But is the timing right for your collection? Egon analyzes fit against your aesthetic thesis, risk tolerance, and portfolio gaps.
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