ZOE HAWK

ARTIST BIO

Zoe Hawk (b. 1982, St. Louis) is an American artist living in Columbia, Missouri. Zoe's paintings deal with the experience of girlhood, exploring issues of feminine identity and belonging. Her work has been published in New American Paintings, Plastik Magazine, and JOIA Magazine, as well as in online features by Hi-Fructose, The Jealous Curator, and BOOOOOOOM. Exhibitions include From Pangs To Pangolins, curated by Trenton Doyle Hancock (Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles); SPRING/BREAK Art Show and FREIZE LA exhibits curated by Michael Slenske (Los Angeles); and solo exhibition Dreaming As The Summers Die (Glass Rice, San Francisco). Special collaborative projects include pieces for ZARA's Women In Art clothing collection, released worldwide in 2019, the Day Dreamers Tarot Deck, created for TRUE/FALSE international film festival 2020, and fabric print designs for the Fall/Winter 2022 collection by Paul & Joe, Paris. She has attended artist residencies in Qatar, Belgium, Ireland, Norway, and the USA. Zoe holds a BFA in studio art from Missouri State University, and an MFA in painting from the University of Iowa.


ARTIST STATEMENT

My work deals with the complex experience of girlhood, exploring adolescent anxiety, feminine identity, and belonging. These themes are tackled within scenes of play, social rituals, and discovery, often stylistically referencing classic storybook illustration. The narratives depicted in the paintings are meant to be sweet and somewhat familiar to the viewer, yet upon closer inspection they take a mysterious or unsettling turn. Sometimes conveying innocence and curiosity, other times confronting uncertainty and fear, my work investigates both the wonder and distress involved in coming of age. The characters inhabit their own little worlds and act out their own dramas, their clothing
becoming costumes of feminine identity. Wild landscapes serve as backdrops for explorations of inner nature and apprehension of the unknown, contrasted by institutional and suburban spaces that signify the more rigid boundaries of societal expectations. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood—between fairytales and the dark realities of womanhood—the girls engage in an intricate play of yearning, contention, camaraderie, and mischief, as they navigate their social and physical environments.