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In creating feminist and queer sculptures that reference the figure, I combine personal symbols with surrealism. My work has long been influenced by the decorative arts and art nouveau ceramics in particular, which can be seen in the glazes I use. Here the glitter and iridescence of the femme fatale has been transformed into a gender-fluid warrior. The interior mirroring in the work creates a baroque visual onslaught merging body, machine, and architecture. These otherworldly totems address sexuality while incorporating nostalgic space-age imagery. Roberta Smith in her review of “Wild Chambers” at Mother Gallery, writes: “Both artists show an unresolvable tension between the abstract and representational as a main power source in their work. Kunin’s compartmentalized surfaces give glimpses of extruded eyes, mouths and breasts while outbursts of incised drawing add a second level of consciousness. Their effect is both hilarious and primeval.”
The free-standing sculptures combine the abstraction of the body with architecture. “Ultra Green Pavilion” pays homage to Bruno Taut’s Glass Pavilion, designed in 1914, combined with a feminist twist on the op- art imagery of Victor Vasarely. The back of the form reveals its inner armature, a stage set that is constantly shape-shifting due to its luminous glaze. “Laughing Castle II” and “Laughter” play with Vasarely’s optical illusions, bringing them into three dimensions, while adding a humorous feminist critique.
Julia Kunin lives in Brooklyn, NY, and works frequently in Hungary. She earned a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.F.A. from The Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Her work explores themes of queerness, feminism and the body. Solo exhibitions include Laughing Castles at Klaus Von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York, NY 2025, Dream Machines at Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL, 2023, Rainbow Dream Machine at McClain Gallery, Houston, TX 2020 -2021 and Mechanical Ballet at Kate Werble Gallery, NY, NY 2021. Les Guerilleres Sandra Gering Gallery, NY, NY, 2015, Golden Grove, Barry Whistler Gallery, Dallas, TX, 2013, Nightwood, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, NY, NY, 2012, Crimson Blossom Deutches Leder Museum, Offenbach, Germany 2002. Two person Exhibitions: Kaleidoscope Eyes, with Mara Held, at McClain Gallery in Houston, TX 2023, Wild Chambers, with Yevgeniya Baras, at Mother Gallery, NY, NY 2022, Against Nature, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, 2007. Recent group Exhibitions include: Painting Deconstructed, Ortega Y Gasset projects, Brooklyn, NY 2024, I’ll Be Your Mirror, Queer Biennial, Detroit, MI 2024, Getting to Ick, Hesse Flatow Gallery, NY, NY, Behind this Mask, Another Mask, curated by Sam Adams at Abigail Ogilvey Gallery, Los Angeles, Queer Clay at AMOCA, LA, 2023, Conversing in Clay, at LACMA, Los Angeles, CA.
Kunin was a Fulbright Scholar to Hungary in 2013. In 2010 She received a Trust for Mutual Understanding grant to Hungary. In 2008 she received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and a residency at Art Omi. In 2007 she received the John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Artist Residency. Fellowships include: The MacDowell Colony, The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, CEC Artslink grant to The Republic of Georgia, Artist Residency in Wiesbaden, Germany, Yaddo, The Millay Colony, Vermont Studio Center, The Core Program in Houston, TX, and Skowhegan. Julia Kunin currently has a series of ceramic lamps at Ralph Pucci International. She is has written artist interviews for Two Coats of Paint. She is also a member of the board of FIAR, The LGBTQ Fire Island artist residency. Her work was recently acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA, and by The Museum of Art and Design, in New York, NY. Her work was reviewed by Roberta Smith in the New York Times, October 2022, “Yevgeniya Baras and Julia Kunin at Mother Gallery.”