Cynthia Mailman, an American painter and educator, died on December 19, 2025, in New York City at age 82.
She was known for figurative and landscape works done in a “cool, pared-down” style. Her early paintings were presented from inside her VW van, looking outward, and included mirrors, wipers and other interior elements against the exterior landscape, placing the observer in the driver’s seat.
Mailman was an active participant in the feminist art movement, an original member of SOHO20 Artists, and took part in The Sister Chapel at P.S.1 in 1978.
Cynthia Mailman (December 31, 1942 – December 19, 2025) was an American painter and educator. She was known for figurative and landscape works done in a “cool, pared-down” style. Her early paintings were presented from a perspective inside the artist’s VW van, looking outward, and include mirrors, wipers or other interior elements against the exterior landscape. By doing this, Mailman put the observer in the driver’s seat, which is also the artist’s point of view. According to Lawrence Alloway, “The interplay of directional movement and expanding space is a convincing expansion of the space of landscape painting”.