American, b. 1952
Karen Kunc was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1952. She received her BFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1975, and her MFA from Ohio State University in 1977. She is a Cather Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she has taught since 1983.
As Kunc has said, “I am interested in evocative inferences about how we have come to live with nature—the shaping of landscape, cultivation and destruction activities, wild and domestic nature, shelters, markers, spaces, natural and evolved forms—icons that come from living with, and against, nature.” A great deal of Kunc’s inspiration comes from the Nebraska landscape, but the resulting images are combinations of multiple shapes and colors that suggest, rather than identify, the disparate natural forms that served as their models. Although the artist’s primary medium is woodcut, her methods are not entirely traditional to that field. Her prints contain a significant number of intense colors, which she produces with an uncharacteristically small number of woodcuts. She achieves this end by attaching stencils to a particular block of wood—a method borrowed from screenprinting. These artistic and technical innovations have distinguished Kunc from other artists working in the woodcut medium.
Kunc has won over 65 awards for her work beginning with her first award as a graduate student in 1976 and recently the Prize of the Director of the State Museum, VII International Art Triennale Majdanek, Lublin, Poland. Her other recognitions include: a Fulbright Scholar Award; Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1996 & 1984; Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Master Award, 1992; Individual Artists Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council, 1982
Karen Kunc received the 2007 Printmaker Emeritus Award from the Southern Graphics Council, which is the largest printmaking membership organization in the country. She was honored at the SGC 36th annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri in 2007, with a presentation and a retrospective exhibition at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center.
As Kunc has said, “I am interested in evocative inferences about how we have come to live with nature—the shaping of landscape, cultivation and destruction activities, wild and domestic nature, shelters, markers, spaces, natural and evolved forms—icons that come from living with, and against, nature.” A great deal of Kunc’s inspiration comes from the Nebraska landscape, but the resulting images are combinations of multiple shapes and colors that suggest, rather than identify, the disparate natural forms that served as their models. Although the artist’s primary medium is woodcut, her methods are not entirely traditional to that field. Her prints contain a significant number of intense colors, which she produces with an uncharacteristically small number of woodcuts. She achieves this end by attaching stencils to a particular block of wood—a method borrowed from screenprinting. These artistic and technical innovations have distinguished Kunc from other artists working in the woodcut medium.
Kunc has won over 65 awards for her work beginning with her first award as a graduate student in 1976 and recently the Prize of the Director of the State Museum, VII International Art Triennale Majdanek, Lublin, Poland. Her other recognitions include: a Fulbright Scholar Award; Mid-America Arts Alliance/National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1996 & 1984; Nebraska Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship Master Award, 1992; Individual Artists Fellowship, Ohio Arts Council, 1982
Karen Kunc received the 2007 Printmaker Emeritus Award from the Southern Graphics Council, which is the largest printmaking membership organization in the country. She was honored at the SGC 36th annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri in 2007, with a presentation and a retrospective exhibition at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center.
