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Anna Kunz: Venus

November 30, 2017 –
February 24, 2018

Installation view of "Anna Kunz: Venus" at Providence College Galleries, November 30, 2017-February 24, 2018. Image: Scott Alario.

Anna Kunz: Venus

November 30, 2017–
February 24, 2018

Reilly Gallery, Smith Center for the Arts

Exhibition Opening Details

Public Reception:
Thursday, November 30
5pm–7pm

About the Exhibition

Anna Kunz’s work has never conformed to categorical notions of geometric abstraction or color-field painting, or acquiesced to the polarities of expressionistic and conceptual painting. Instead, her entire oeuvre reflects art’s reliance on chance, associative color and the poetic reordering of form, especially as it all springs forth from near mystical combinations of disparate historical sources, personal memories and collective experiences. She is an artist who is well-known for creating surprising color palettes and calibrating tone and hue to produce distinctly painterly projects in a variety of media. Ranging from traditional paintings on canvas and works on paper to site-specific sculpture, theatrical stage-sets, and video and light installations, Kunz’s productions amount to the epitome of an expanded painting practice.

Building on this trajectory, Anna Kunz: Venus is a reflexive exhibition featuring one small work on paper—completed in 2016 and never before shown—alongside a large-scale installation comprised of a video projection and painted gauze scrims re-fashioned out of materials from “Warped,” a vaulted curtain Kunz exhibited at the EXPO Chicago fair in 2016. Dark painted walls and layers of sheer fabric suspended from the ceiling sheathe and bisect the gallery in ways that envelop the viewer’s body in atmospheric color and shapes. Huge swaths of colorful washes and brush strokes become animated as the light emanated overhead and from a video projection refracts on various fabric and architectural planes. The result is a jewel-like temple to all that is painterly. Like the goddess Venus’ arrival in a world on the verge of blooming, Anna Kunz: Venus is born into a world of painting on the verge of expanding.

Anna Kunz: Venus is organized by Jamilee Lacy, PCG Director & Curator.

About the Artist

Anna Kunz is an artist living and working in Chicago. She has received awards and nominations from organizations such as 3Arts, Artadia; the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation; the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation; and the Rema Hort Mann Foundation. She has been an artist in residence at The Edward Albee Foundation, Roger Brown House, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and The Marie Walsh Sharpe Foundation, NYC. Kunz has exhibited nationally and internationally, and recent and forthcoming solo exhibitions include Heroes for Ghosts at Galleri Urbane in Dallas, Yellow Pinto at Thomas McCormick, and Anna Kunz at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. The artist has additionally worked with architects, dancers and musicians to create décor for theatrical and dance productions, namely for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in 2009. Kunz holds a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a MFA from Northwestern University.