About the Artist
Tim Hawkinson
Tim Hawkinson (born in 1960, San Francisco, California) is a contemporary American artist best known for his imaginative and intricately crafted sculptures and installations. Often using humble, everyday materials—such as plastic bags, cardboard, electrical components, hair, or even fingernail clippings—Hawkinson creates works that are both technically complex and conceptually engaging. His art frequently explores themes of the body, time, systems of order, and the passage of life, often through the lens of transformation and reinvention.
After receiving a BFA from San Jose State University and an MFA from UCLA, Hawkinson emerged in the Los Angeles art scene in the late 1980s. His practice quickly stood out for its quirky inventiveness and obsessive attention to detail. He often incorporates elements of sound, motion, and self-reference, with many of his works functioning like kinetic machines—some powered by air, others by rudimentary mechanical systems he builds himself. His large-scale pieces, such as Überorgan, a massive inflatable musical instrument, and Pentecost, a tree-like structure populated with self-playing robotic figures, illustrate his ability to blend engineering with poetic expression.
Hawkinson’s work has been exhibited in major museums and international exhibitions, including the Whitney Biennial and the Venice Biennale. He has had solo shows at institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Getty Museum. His outdoor sculpture Bear (2005), constructed from granite boulders, is a prominent public artwork at the University of California, San Diego.
Hawkinson lives and works in Los Angeles, where he continues to produce work that balances playfulness with profound inquiry into the nature of existence, materiality, and perception.
