Artist bio

As a collagist, painter, book arts and fiber artist Kunstadt often invokes a metaphysical quality of contemplation and timelessness. Her works on/of paper reference artifacts, antique books, music manuscripts and journals - deconstructing paper and text and using it in metaphorical ways. 

Born in Boston, with a childhood in a small New England town, Kunstadt received a BFA, Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT. and continued with postgraduate studies at the Akademie der Bildenen Künste, Munich, Germany. Nine years ago she re-entered a familiar landscape as in her youth, moving to the Hudson Valley, having lived for 35 years in NYC. 

Recent awards: Florence & Irwin Zlowe Memorial Medal of Honor Award, National Association of Women Artists, 2022; ASK/Kingston Annual Juror's Award 2021; 2017 Kuniyoshi Fund Award; Medal of Honor & The Anna Walinska Memorial Award 2017 and the Mastrangelo Environmental Art Award 2021, National Association of Women Artists; Award for Excellence 2016, Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, Nyack, NY. 

Notable group exhibitions: Slash: Paper Under the Knife, Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY; Birds of a Feather: Abstract Tapestry, KuBe Art Center, Beacon, NY; Luminous Elsewheres, Westbeth Gallery, NYC; Connections, Ceres Gallery, NY; PUTTING IT TOGETHER 2022/2023, SMOKESHOW, and In Pursuit of Color, The Lockwood Gallery, Kingston, NY; CARTography: an alternate route and IF ONLY: A Feminist Exhibition, Olive Free Library, Shokan, NY; Through The Eye of the Needle and WORD 2016, Hudson Valley Museum of Contemporary Art, Peekskill, NY; SALLY, ArtPoetica & The Old Stone House, Brooklyn, NY (traveled 2019-2022); Between The Covers: Altered Books in Contemporary Art, The Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA; As Subject and Object: Contemporary Book Artists Explore Sacred Hebrew Texts, MOBIA, New York, NY; Interfaith Biennial, Dominican University, River Forest, IL; Books Undone: the art of altered books in contemporary art, Penn College, Williamsport, PA; Triennial 2018, Arts/Westchester, White Plains, NY; Boundless: Altered Books in Contemporary Art, Hill-Stead Museum, Farmington, CT (curator/exhibitor); Artistic Legacy 1 + 1 + 1, Vision of Care, Illumination, Abstract Evocative, Far & Wide and Radius 50, Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, Woodstock, NY; Materials: Hard & Soft, Denton, TX; PATTERNS, Wired Gallery, High Falls, NY; The Divine and Sublime, Drawing Rooms, Jersey City, NJ; Fire In The Belly, Burnette Gallery, Woodstock, NY (curator/exhibitor); And The Word Is....Gershman Gallery, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Freed Formats: the book reconsidered, Five Points Gallery, Torrington, CT; NEW YORK REGIONAL, Magnitude SEVEN and Textuality, Manifest Creative Research Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; The Book As Art, Decatur Arts Alliance, Decatur, GA; Somewhere Between Creation and Destruction, Joseloff Gallery, Hartford Art School, Hartford, CT; The Art of the Book & Paper International Exhibition, Rochester Public Library, Rochester, NY. 

Public Collections: George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, Bowdoin College Library, Brunswick, ME; The Book Arts Collection, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; The Permanent Collection, Center for Book Arts, New York, NY; Baylor Book Arts Collection, Baylor University, Waco, Texas. 

The PBS/OFF BOOK Book Arts mini-documentary features Kunstadt in the segment, Transforming the Sacred. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC4fLk-Xeel