Cynthia Back was born in St. Louis, Missouri and currently resides in Portugal. She earned a BFA at Minneapolis College of Art and Design and a post-graduate certificate at St. Martin’s School of Art in London, England. Cynthia has exhibited widely, most recently with three solo exhibits in Portugal. Her work encompasses the mediums of painting, printmaking, collage, and book arts.  She is the recipient of awards including grants from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation, Puffin Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation; residencies to Galleri Heike Arndt, Kettinge, Denmark, Art Print Residence, Arenys de Munt, Spain, Aviário Studio, Ferreira do Zêzere, The Artists Centre Dale, Norway, The MacDowell Colony, The Women’s Studio Workshop, Blue Mountain Center, The Studios at Key West, and Acadia National Park in the USA, The Ballinglen Arts Foundation, and The Cill Rialaig Project in Ireland, and Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain.