Cynthia Valianti Corbett

  • Cynthia Valianti Corbett has led the way as a prominent gallerist and dealer in the contemporary art world for almost...

    Cynthia Valianti Corbett has led the way as a prominent gallerist and dealer in the contemporary art world for almost twenty years.

     

    Born in Marlborough, Massachusetts, Cynthia studied at the University of Massachusetts (B.A. Political Science) and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts and Harvard Universities (M.A. Law and Diplomacy). She went on to establish a career as a successful international economist, specialising in emerging markets. Landmark projects included her role as the founder and architect of the debt conversion plans for most of Sub-Saharan Africa throughout the 1980s.

     

    Having relocated to the UK in 1986, Cynthia decided on a career change in 2000, focusing on raising her daughter and retraining as an art historian and curator at Christie’s Education Institute (RSA-Christie’s Education Diploma in Modern and Contemporary Art). She eventually launched her gallery in 2004.

     

  • Since then, Cynthia has worked to become a leading figure in the international contemporary art world. Branching between the art markets of both her homeland of the United States and adopted home in Britain, Cynthia has supported the careers of emerging artists, many of whom have enjoyed great recognition. Cynthia Corbett Gallery has launched numerous exhibitions and hosted at major international art fairs, including Art Miami (Miami, Fl.), Nova Art Fair (Chicago, Il.) The London Art fair (Islington) and Art 212 (New York, N.Y.).

     

    Cynthia has remained dedicated to supporting and celebrating promising young creatives. In 2009 she founded The Young Masters Art Prize. This not-for-profit prize is open to all international artists and praises artistic skill and innovation with an awareness of the Old Masters, relevant cultural history and art of the past. The prize has since grown to include the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize (created 2014) and an Emerging Woman Artist Award, which was introduced in 2017. In 2021, Young Masters launched a new showcase – Focus On The Female – a female-led curation of 16 female artists, exhibited at The Exhibitionist Hotel in South Kensington, London.

     

    Alongside her work with the gallery, Cynthia is also a founding member of the Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD), a member of Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA) and supporter of many international arts organisations including BFAMI, The Royal Academy of Art, The Tate, Serpentine Gallery, The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a Patron of the V&A Museum and an ArtAngel Angel.

     

    Outside her dynamic art career, Cynthia is a trained jazz singer and classical pianist. She is married with one daughter and lives in Wimbledon, London.

     

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