Karen Kunc

Karen Kunc, Professor Emeritus at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, began her career as a trained painter and printmaker, receiving a BFA from the University of Nebraska in 1975 and an MFA from Ohio State University in 1977. Kunc taught as the Willa Cather Professor and Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln from 2003 until 2020.

Kunc specializes in the color reduction woodcut technique, which she uses to create abstract works heavily influenced by German Expressionist and Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. Among numerous awards, Kunc won a 1996 Fulbright Award for study in Iceland. She has also exhibited her work extensively both in the United States and abroad. Her work is represented in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress.