Crissia Vaughn is a photo-realist oil painter, born and raised on the island of Oahu, and a rare hunter in a society where the majority of resources needed for survival are mediated through capitalism. While pursuing her BFA at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, she began to develop a series of self-portraits derived from photographs captured on her spearfishing dives. Driven by the understanding that hunting is an essential process at every level of the natural food chain, Crissia uses photorealism as a medium to reconnect her audience with the harvest by transporting them directly into her hunt. Crissia takes inspiration from the awareness that some of the earliest documented forms of painting were Paleolithic cave paintings which revered the hunt and the animals on which the painters depended. Her current body of work is thus a contemporary continuation of this prehistoric painting ritual, honoring the intrinsic relationship between human and animal, hunter and prey.
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Education:
Completed her BFA in Painting at the University of Hawaii at Manoa - May 2021.
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Awards:
2019- Received the John Young Scholarship in the Arts.
2020- Received the Yoko + Mark Radke Award For Excellence in Drawing and Painting.
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2021- Received Oustanding Undergraduate Student in Painting
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Selected Exhibitions:
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September, 2022 - First Friday Open Exhibition, Open Sea Leather Co., Honolulu, Hawai'i
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August, 2022 - Illusion And Reality | Generational Bridge: A Boomer and a Millennial, Downtown Art Center, Honolulu, Hawai'i
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November, 2021- Zatara Contemporary Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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June, 2021- 34th Women’s Works Annual Show, The Old Court House Art Center, Woodstock, Illinois.
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June, 2021- Art Night, Protea Zero Waste One Year Anniversary, Kailua, Hawai'i
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May, 2021- Open Sea Leather Co., Honolulu, Hawai'i
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May, 2021- Turning The Key, Downtown Art Center, Honolulu, Hawai’i
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March, 2021- Something Fishy, Downtown Art Center, Honolulu, Hawai’i
2016-2017 Ai Love Nalo, Waimanalo, Hawai‘i
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Selected Online Exhibitions:
November-December, 2021- Biafarin International Smart Online Group Exhibition
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May, 2021- University of Hawai’i at Manoa 2021 BFA Show, Honolulu, Hawai'i
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Publications & Media:
August, 2022 - Artist perspectives from two sides of life's timeline at Downtown Art Center, Hawai'i Pacific Radio
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2021- Horizons Undergraduate Journal Vol. VI
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