Richard Hawkins lives and works in Los Angeles, where he serves as Professor of Painting & Drawing at the University of California, Los Angeles. Recent solo exhibitions include Loewe FW24 Men's Show, Paris (2024); Reena Spaulings, Los Angeles (2023); Greene Naftali, New York (2022, 2019, 2018, 2016); Tate, Liverpool (2014); Le Consortium, Dijon, France (2013); and the Art Institute of Chicago, which traveled to the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2010). Hawkins was the 2012 recipient of the Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship in The Visual Arts at The American Academy in Berlin.

His work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hessel Museum of Art, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Kistefos Museum, Norway; Loewe Foundation, Madrid; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Nevada Museum of Art; Palm Springs Art Museum; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others.