about — Carolyn di Fiori Hopkins

Carolyn DiFiori Hopkins received her M.F.A. as well as her M.A. from the State University of New York at Albany in cross-disciplinary art and painting. She completed her undergraduate studio studies at the Philadelphia College of Art (University of the Arts) earning her BA in art and education from Rutgers University. In 2023 she was selected as The Berlin Collective International - Artist of the Year 2023. She is a Fellow in Fine Art - Woven Tale Press, Elizabeth Sloan Tyler Award. In addition she has been a visiting artist throughout New York, Philadelphia and the Southern New Jersey Region including the State University of New York at Albany, Studio 518, the Atelier in Albany, the Arts of Southern New Jersey, and Fleisher Art Memorial, Philadelphia, PA. She conceived and co-founded the alternative artist-run gallery, The Hallway in Troy, NY. An award-winning artist, she has work in the permanent collect of SUNY Plaza Office of the Chancellor and has exhibited at the SUNY Art Museum - Albany, The Hallway Gallery, The Capital Region Arts Center, The Knockdown Center in Brooklyn, The New York State Museum in Albany, Opalka Gallery in Albany, SUNY Global Headquarters in NYC, Saratoga Arts, Linus Art Gallery in Los Angeles, Marian Locks Gallery in Philadelphia, Woodmere Museum and Mangel Gallery in Philadelphia. DiFiori Hopkins was a 2023 recipient of a Statewide Community Regrants Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Arts Center of the Capital Region. She is the past recipient of grants from The New York State Council on the Arts, The University at Albany Foundation, and the Regional Economic Development Council Initiative.

Early in her career during the 1980’s she was a Technical Artist at The Yellow Springs Fellowship for the Arts, later Yellow Springs Institute (YSI) for Contemporary Studies and the Arts, founded in 1975 to “establish an interdisciplinary laboratory for creative individuals whose work interprets aspects of contemporary experience, encourage creation of works that expand artistic boundaries, enlarge cultural understanding, and employ art and artists in the life of communities.” John A. Clauser, an architect, was its founding director and ran the Institute for its entire existence. Among its most notable programs were Six Saturdays: Explorations in Six Archetypal Themes in 1980; mythology scholar Joseph Campbell and poet Robert Bly held workshops for this program; Ages Apart(1982) which examined cultural transformation and change, also with Robert Bly; and ACCIONES (1989), a project concerned with the cultural realities and concerns of Latino interdisciplinary artists from the two Americas.She went on to serve as the regional Coordinator for Artists Call Philadelphia, where she worked on multiple art projects over a two-year period including performance art, traveling exhibits, murals, and group exhibits. She was appointed by/worked directly with Lucy Lippard, internationally known writer, art critic, activist and curator. ARTISTS CALL is the largest cultural campaign of its kind ever organized in the United States. (Philadelphia and NYC 1984 - 1985)

Carolyn DiFiori Hopkins is a contemporary artist known for mixed media paintings and limited edition prints that explore the intersections of nature, memory, and myth. Her work offers symbolic narratives rooted in the Anthropocene—where birds, trees, and human forms act as witnesses and keepers of time. Signature series such as “Messengers and Watchers,” “Crossing into the Nesting,” “Gesture Toward the Earth,” and “Second Surface” invite collectors into layered landscapes of reverence and unrest. Each piece is composed with atmospheric washes, gestural mark-making, and the intimacy of drawn line. Collect archival, signed prints on Hahnemühle paper, or inquire about available originals. This is work for those drawn to beauty with depth—where form meets story, and surface speaks of something beneath.