Biography

Robert Tynes was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1953. He spent his formative years in Birmingham, Alabama with regular summer retreats to the mountains of North Carolina. In 1971 he attended Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee where he received a B.A. degree in 1975, graduating with Honors and Distinction in Art. He earned an M.F.A. degree in Painting from East Carolina University in 1981. 

Tynes has held over twenty-five solo exhibitions of his work, including Fay Gold Gallery in Atlanta, The Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii; the Roswell Museum & Art Center in New Mexico; and the Greenville Museum of Art in North

Carolina. He has also participated in more than a hundred and fifty group shows from Hawaii to New York City. Among the most significant of these were exhibitions at the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio; the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, North Carolina; Allan Stone Gallery, New York; Lillian Heidenberg Gallery, New York, Hand in Hand Gallery, New York; Hodges Taylor Gallery, Charlotte; and the H & W Bechtler Gallery in Charlotte. The latter exhibition, entitled "Doubletake" included works by Larry Bell, Gregory Gillespie, Duane Hanson, Marilyn Levine, Paul Sarkisian, and Richard Shaw.  

Tynes is also the recipient of several artist-in-residence grants including two from the Roswell Museum and Art Center, New Mexico in 1985 and 1991; and one in 1986, from the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming. In addition, he has completed several large-scale commissions for The Doubletree Hotel in Kansas City, IBM Corporation’s Field Engineering Headquarters in Atlanta, and the city of Charlotte's Convention Center.  

Currently Professor of Art in Painting and Drawing and Director of the S. Tucker Cooke Gallery at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Tynes has also taught at the University of Hawaii, Humboldt State University in California, and East Carolina University. From 1993 to 1995, he served as the first Chairman of the Board for the Black Mountain College Museum & Arts Center, and more recently has served as a member of the Boards of Directors for both the Asheville Area Arts Council and the Black Mountain Center for the Arts. He is currently serving on the College Art Association’s Professional Practices Committee.