Cynthia Norton
Menorca Island Lady with Fan, 2025
Oil on Wallpaper
16" x 20"
 
Artist Bio
Cynthia Norton (b. 1970, Miami, FL) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans performance, painting, sculpture, sound, and installation. Raised in Lexington, Kentucky, near the studio of folk music legend John Jacob Niles, she has long drawn from local and vernacular traditions while reimagining them in ways that open up unexpected meanings and universal connections. Norton earned a BFA from the University of Kentucky (1992), an MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Time Arts (1995), and later an MAT in Art Education from the University of Louisville (2004). She has lived and worked in Chicago, New York City, and Louisville, taking on roles that ranged from lead sculptor at Spaeth Design—where she created kinetic displays—to art director for the feature film Temporary Girl (1997). And presenting performance in Berlin, 1998 at the SoToDo Kongress. For more than three decades, Norton has exhibited and performed internationally, sharing her work across 26 countries and 18 U.S. states. Highlights include a solo exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2012), participation in Spin: Turning Records into Art at KMAC (2018), and her solo show Mystic Heart at KMAC (2021), which was reviewed by critic Kevin Nance. Her work Lyricism := I Cry Slim entered the Al Shand’s collection in 2023, as part of Rounding the Circle, a show at the Speed Museum curated by Julien Robson. Residencies and international projects have been central to her practice. In 2023, she worked in Scotland, Wales, and London through residencies at Peacock & Worm, the IKT Conference, and Frieze Art Fair. Her screen print series from Aberdeen was later exhibited at Moremen Gallery (2024–25). Upcoming projects in 2025 include a residency in Menorca, Spain, and a solo presentation at the Alhambra in Stillwater, Minnesota. Norton’s work is guided by a belief in the power of art to expand awareness of the human experience. Through performance, visual art, and sound, she re-contextualizes familiar forms to reveal the poetic, the critical, and the mystical in everyday life.