Artist's Bio

Artist Statement

“My work as an artist/printmaker addresses issues of the landscape and our natural surroundings as direct influences from my Nebraska heritage, my daily experiences and viewpoints in the landscape of the plains and from extensive travel, and as artistic interpretation and contemplation on larger issues of the eternal life struggle, of endurance and vulnerability, growth and destruction.

“My prints suggest extremes of weather and natural forces at work, a sense of the micro/macrocosm, set against landscape or space, both wild and cultivated, intimate and unknowable. I am interested in the span of time it takes to wear away a canyon, build a mountain, the erosion forces that continually wash onto the plains, forming the earth, and, ultimately, shaping our world. My hope is that these larger concepts are provoked by viewing my work with a poetic and intelligent sense of wonder.

“My symbolic images are derived from a rich mix of instilled influences, born at home, and greatly expanded and contextualized from seeing life lived the world over, my experiences and past work, and issues in contemporary art. I recognize a host of associations that flow out of my work and are research interests for me - from nature and science, spiritual and religious thought, art historical and modern icons, immigration narratives and native myths.”

Artist Biography

Karen Kunc was born in Omaha, NE in 1952. She received her B.F.A. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she has taught since 1983. Her works have been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; the Ball State University Atrium Gallery, Muncie, Indiana; and Gallery APA, Nagoya, Japan. Her work has also been exhibited internationally at the State Museum at Majdanek, Lublin, Poland; the 6th Triennale Mondiale D'Estampes Petit Format, Chamalieres, France; Invitational, Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan; Intergrafia, Poland; and the International Print and Drawing Exhibition, Silpakorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Kunc has taught numerous workshops around the world and served as a visiting artist in over 100 institutions. In 2004, she curated the exhibition, Mirror of the Wood: A Century of the Woodcut Print in Finland, which traveled to the United States in 2005. She also organized Printmaking Relevance/ Resonance, the 2004 Mid America Print Council biennial conference.