Cynthia Kukla

Cynthia M. Kukla is a studio artist and art critic whose paintings have been exhibited on four continents and in solo and curated group exhibitions throughout the United States. She received numerous grants for international research on art and regularly speaks at international conferences. Cynthia was a visiting professor in Greece three times and uses the rich culture of the ancient Mediterranean as her Muse.

She is a member of the prestigious Watercolor Honor Society of America and served on their national board. She has written for art journals over 30 years, currently for the art journal Aeqai and Movers and Makers, Cincinnati, and for the national Watercolor Honor Society Newsletter.

Cynthia received her BFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, under Ray Yoshida, and MFA in Painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Cynthia spoke at numerous international conferences: the Enlightenment aesthetic panel at “Impact~ Kontakt” in Berlin, Germany and Poznan, Poland, 2005. While in Berlin, she had special permission for two days drawing the iconic Queen Nefertiti sculpture at the Altes Museum. She spoke at Impact in 2007 in Tallinn, Estonia on Enlightenment aesthetics: Classical Practices: Are Artists Still Embracing Them?

In 2009, she was invited to exhibit in the acclaimed Tallinn Drawing Triennial, Mana Propria, and teach a Master Class at the Triennial’s Drawing Marathon at the Art Academy in Tallinn. In 2010, she was invited to teach a faculty workshop at Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand, again in 2011, along with teaching Western painting and watercolors, painting at ancient sites on weekends at Panomrung, Chiang Mai, Ayutthaya and Wat Arun and in temples in Bangkok during her two-month invitation.

Art residencies supported by grants include: Balatonfured, Hungary, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Center at Sweetbriar, Millay Colony, New York, and Studios Midwest, Illinois and in 2022 a writers residency in Wisconsin. Other research grants took her to Poland, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and Taiwan. Her c...