Kunik began as a watercolorist and landscape painter, but wanting to work more conceptually, she returned to school, earning a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design. Informed by environmental issues and questions that impact daily life, Kunik’s abstract paintings began referencing environmental problems, which prompted her to begin a four-year community gardening project that also fed a large number of hungry artist/gardeners. Kunik then turned to fine art photography in order to investigate perception as it relates to the vegetables she cultivated in her gardens. Using photos from her travels as a reference, she then began combining photography and painting and an emulsion process to continue her exploration of perception.
Kunik has been in more than 80 exhibitions, including numerous solo shows. She has also exhibited most recently at Art Basel in 2018 and Art Basel Miami in 2017, at Germany’s Contemporary Art Ruhr, in Italy, Thailand and Peru. Her work has been in Photo LA (2011 and 2012), and has also been shown in galleries and museums in New York and throughout California. In addition, Kunik had painting residencies in Canisy, France, Assisi, Italy, and Civitella D’Agliano and Casalabate, Italy. Kunik was born in Chicago, Illinois, earning a BA degree from the University of Illinois and an MS from Chicago’s DePaul University. She moved to Beverly Hills, CA in 1978, where she currently resides.