ART STATMENT
Cynthia Tom is a visual multi-media artist who plays with the accepted norm. Surrealism is the platform for her ideas to ruminate and take form. She creates dynamic art works and installations that reflect her passion for social justice for women and community healing through art.
A third-generation Chinese American, Cynthia draws inspiration from divergent cultures. Symbols, cues and clues fill her art, which is described as “Cultural Surrealism”. Cynthia’s paintings and installations persuade us to look beyond the aesthetic--to challenge stereotypes and traditional roles, questioning paradigms and encouraging our internal dialogue. Her paintings portray a prophetic wish for people to raise their consciousness and her strong female images evoke a longing for freedom of expression and a life of choice.
As a curator, her most current project for the Asian American Women Artists Association is A PLACE OF HER OWN. Cynthia embedded the question, “If you had a place of your own, what would it be?” to guide women down the path of intense self focus. Currently she has lead 43 artists to exhibitions of their answers and is working to explore the good this creative process can bring in a social service context. www.cynthiatom.com and www.aplaceofherown.org

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Board President ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN ARTISTS ASSOCIATION
Building a formal business and working structure, branding and reputation for this 4 year old non-profit.
• Leadership and guidance- Creating a culture of open communication, building a critically important and vibrant reputation.
• Public Relations: Branding/marketing strategies and implementation, lectures, outreach, websites, partnerships.
• Artistic Director- Curator of exhibitions, design and installation, Program design and implementation, Founder of A Place of Her Own, awarded 6 grants focused on the healing and personal growth, since Feb 2009, including NEA-National Endowment for the Arts-Fast Track. 9-2011.

SELECTED CV
Medium
Painting, mixed media, installation, cultural and social issues, curatorial projects

Selected Solo Exhibitions and Artist in residence programs
2010-2011 SF Arts Commission -Art in Storefronts, Chinatown, 950 GRANT AVE., SF
2006 Undiscovered Research, Exhibition in conjunction with the Artist in Residence Program, The Legion of Honor, San Francisco
2005 February Arts in San Francisco, Borgia Fine Arts Gallery, S.F.
2003 Juried Exhibition, 2100 Webster Pan-Pacific Public Space, San Francisco, CA
2002 Exhibition in conjunction with the Artist in Residence, San Francisco Fine Arts Museum to coincide with the Legion of Honor’s Surrealist Exhibition, Dreaming with Eyes Wide Open.

Selected Group Exhibitions
2011 Women Artists of the Bay Area, Donna Seager juror, O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, CA
2011 Discards & Variances, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
2009-2011 Curator, A PLACE OF HER OWN, AAWAA, De Young Museum, Driftwood Salon, SOMarts Cultural Center, SF
2008 East Meets West, ArtSF Gallery, 49 Geary Blvd., San Francisco
2007 Guest Curator and Artist: Cheers to Muses, Contemporary Works by Asian American Women, Chinese Culture Center, SF
Selected Publications and Interviews
2011 Entering the Picture: Judy Chicago, The Fresno Feminist Art Program, and the Collective Visions of Women Artists (New Directions in American History)
2011 KPFA Radio – A PLACE OF HER OWN, The Curator, Veronica Faisant, NPR
2010 NPR Radio- Tell Me More-Tony Cox, Wash, D.C., Women Artists Find Their Place
2009-2011 Traces: Politics and Poetics of post-colonial East-Asian women artists in California by Laura Fantone PhD, Italy, Scholar-in-residence, UC Berkeley for Gender, Beatrice Bain Research Group, professor Art Institute of San Francisco
2008 ABC Channel 7 - Profiles of Excellence, Emerging Leaders in San Francisco
2007 Cheers To Muses, an Anthology of Contemporary Work by Asian American Women.
2003 Women Artists of the American West, Book and CD and curriculum, Susan Ressler PhD., editor, Purdue University Press.
2002 Dreaming with Eyes Wide Open, Artist in Residence at the San Francisco Fine Arts Museums, SF Arts Monthly

Organizations
Board President- AAWAA, Asian American Women Artists' Association. College Art Association Affiliate, CA Lawyers for the Arts, Women’s Caucus for the Art, International Museum of Women, De Young Museum’s Asian American Audience Development Committee

Selected Guest Lectures and Workshops
2011 State of Asian American Women in the Arts, College Art Association, New York
2011 A Place of Her Own – Workshop for social service providers serving SF Asian American women
2009- 2011 Cynthia Tom, Her Art, Feminism and Asian American women artists, UC Berkeley and San Francisco State Asian American studies lecturer
2009 Asia Society presents Asian American Art: Feminism and the Arts: Panel Discussion