He received a
Bachelor of Fine Arts from the
University of Texas, Austin in 1984 and a
Master of Fine Arts from the
California Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts) in 1988.[5][6] After graduating from Cal Arts, Hawkins worked for a time as a short story writer.[7] Hawkins' art largely consists of sculpture and collage.[8] His works combine "ubiquitous pop-culture images and objects with arcane references and quotes"; frequent themes include "current celebrities, literary lions of yesteryear, haunted houses, Asian sex tourism, Greek and Roman statuary and the American Indian experience".[7] He is gay, and his sexuality also informs his artwork.[7][8] According to art historian
Richard Meyer, Hawkins' "mash-up [of] avant-garde, kitsch and kink", including the use of traditionally feminine consumer items, "challenge[s] us to rethink our hierarchies of value and visual pleasure."[7]
Hawkins was instrumental in reviving the work of the late artist
Tony Greene, including co-curating (with
Catherine Opie) an exhibition of Greene's work that was included in the 2014
Whitney Biennial exhibition in New York.[9]
Selected solo exhibitions
"Collage Paintings, Gesture Paintings" and "To the House of Shibusawa",
Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (2018)
"Being and its Fetuses: New Ceramics,
Galerie Buchholz, Cologne (2016)
^Mark Coetzee, ed. (2007). Red eye: L.A. artists from the Rubell Family Collection, December 6, 2006-May 31, 2007. Miami, Fla.:
Rubell Museum.
ISBN9780978988876.