Anna Kunz’s work as an artist spans over 25 years. She creates diverse works that span paper, painting, Often employing painted and dyed fabrics, her artworks function like nets that capture and manipulate light and color. These experiential pieces frequently incorporate various objects and surfaces that enrich the viewer's experience, inviting them to engage with the space dynamically as they move through it. Kunz's work has been featured in numerous esteemed national and international collections, with exhibitions held in cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, New York, Madrid, and Poland.
Kunz has collaborated with architects, dancers, and musicians to produce décor for theatrical and dance performances, notably for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and The Seldoms. Her collaborations extend to choreographer Benji Ninja, Family Voguers, and the Performance Collective “Industry of the Ordinary,” showcased in a retrospective at the Chicago Cultural Center. A commissioned suspended artwork resides in a newly constructed building at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, designed by Helmut Jahn, alongside works by Alice Aycock and Chris Wood. Additionally, her large-scale commissioned pieces include a seven-piece painting part of the William P. Clements Junior collection at the Southwest Texas University Medical Center's new Radiology Oncology wing. Upcoming collaborations feature Kunz's paintings as textiles for designer Nina Arias in New York City, where she described them as “moveable paintings, with the body as armature.”
Kunz has also served as a curatorial advisor and creative partner for various private organizations and artists. In 2010, she curated a significant international outdoor exhibition titled “Nature Unframed” for Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. Furthermore, she operated a nomadic exhibition space called “Kunz, Vis Projects,” partnering periodically with Amsterdam-based artist Niels Vis and New York's Rosalinda Gonzalez from her garage in Chicago. This platform invited artists from all career levels to showcase new work alongside one another, challenging conventional career categorizations and fostering fresh perspectives. Kunz is also a founding member of the Chicago chapter of the "Tiger Strikes Asteroid Gallery" (TSA) and served as co-director alongside Michelle Wasson from 2016 to 2018.
Honored with nominations from esteemed organizations including 3Arts, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Emerging Artist award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Artadia Chicago, and the Rema Hort-Mann Foundation's Individual Artists Grant, Kunz also received a nomination from the Joan Mitchell Foundation in 2020. Recently, she was nominated by Anonymous Was a Woman.
Kunz has participated as an artist-in-residence in several prestigious programs, including the Marie Walsh Sharpe Studio Program, the Edward Albee Foundation, and the Adele and Sam Golden Foundation in New York. She is currently represented by Alexander Berggruen in New York City and BERGGRUEN San Francisco, McCormick Gallery in Chicago, and Galleri Urbane in Dallas, with connections to the Library Street Collective in Detroit, and the Pit LA. Anna Kunz is presently an artist-in-residence at the Monira Foundation in Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, from March 2024 to 2025. She splits her time between living and working in New York City and Chicago, and her main studio is in the woods of Southwest Michigan.
Exhibition Walkthrough
Singing in Unison curated by Phong H Bui Naked Light at Galleri Urbaine
Links
Brooklyn Rail: Anna Kunz - Paintings to the Full Flower Moon Brooklyn Rail: #1080 The New Social Environment: Chrys Martin, Judy Pfaff, Anna Kunz Cosmic Geometries: The Prairie’s Edge - Carrie Secrist Gallery Color as the Shape of Thought: A Review of ROSY Art 50 2023: Chicago Artists’ Artists With Rays | Neil Andrew | Alexander Berggruen Brooklyn Rail Interview with David Rhodes Sixty Inches from Center for Color Cast Chicago Tribune for Color Cast Chicago Artist Writers
Smart Museum
Chicago Gallery News
Summer in DUMBO: A Visit to the Sharpe Foundation
The Seldoms
Inside/Within
Skowhegan
White Box NY
LVL3
Reema Hort Mann Foundation
TSA Brooklyn
Review IN/SITU / EXPO Projects SFAQ
FRESH VUE: Anna Kunz EXPO Projects
Interview by Kate Pollasch
Essay by Barry Schwabsky Essay by James Yood
Essay by Anne Harris
Essay by Monica Westin
Essay by Sabina Ott for Yellow Pinto Essay by Charlotte Ickes for Color Cast Essay by Jonathan Miller for The Blue Magnitude Essay by Deborah Shapiro for Rosy