Dawn Hunter is a painter, interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work explores popular culture, gender, identity and the intersection of art and science. She earned her B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and her M.F.A. from the University of California, Davis, in 1992, studying with Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest and Irit Rogoff. While at Davis, she received the Ellen Hansen Memorial Prize for Blossom, a monumental drawing exploring female identity through mythology. More recently, her research-based project Aesthetic Instincts explores the life and scientific drawings of neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal. A Fulbright España Senior Research Fellow and Starr Foundation Fellow, Hunter became the first American woman artist-in-residence at London's Royal Academy Schools. She has exhibited internationally, including at the Drawing Center in New York, and is an associate professor at the University of South Carolina.