Amie Cunat

A Bold, Buoyant View of Color

By Elisa Gallaro

Japanese American artist Amie Cunat (M.F.A. '12) is known for her unabashed use of color to explore, entice, and question. With hues too bold to ignore, Cunat draws visitors to paintings and installations that challenge popular assumptions about subjects as diverse as nature, abstract structures, and Shaker design.

Cunat's work reflects her interests, including spiritualism, biomorphic form, and the horror movies she has loved since childhood — especially those involving creatures that "are both unrecognizable and akin to us. We are our own enemy," she says.

Regardless of the piece, count on Cunat's buoyant application of color. "I am not afraid of it," she says. Instead, Cunat is intrigued by the way "something that we consider a constant will shift radically in response to its surroundings." For example, the same green will look different at the edge of a painting than at the center, and different again next to a brighter version of the hue. "Nothing else can shift like that," she says. "Color's relativity has always been very exciting to me."

Cunat's command of color was on full display in Meetinghouse, a critically recognized installation presented in 2018 in New York City at Victori+Mo, now known as Dinner Gallery. The work transformed the space into striking adaptations of a Shaker meeting house and Shaker craftmanship. Cunat furnished a blazing bright yellow foyer with replicas of a Shaker rocking chair, candlestand table, peg rails, and other interior features. A congregation room, painted in brilliant blues, was outfitted with equally meticulous touches.

The installation led to an artist residency and solo exhibition at the Shaker Museum's historic site in Mount Lebanon, New York. Her installations have been covered in publications including Galerie, Vogue Italia, The Coastal Post, Metal Magazine, ARTnews, and the New York Times, which described Meetinghouse as "the highlight" of an 11-gallery exhibition.

Cunat has also been an artist in residence at galleries in Kofu, Japan; the Studios at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts; and, most recently, Yaddo, a retreat for artists in Saratoga Springs, New York. She has been awarded grants and fellowships from the New York State Council on the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She has also been a Visiting Artist at The Cooper Union in New York City. Since 2013, Cunat has been on the faculty of the Visual Arts Department at her alma mater, Fordham University, in New York City, where she earned a bachelor's degree in visual arts and art history. 

Cunat was born and raised in the Chicago suburb of McHenry, Illinois. She chose Fordham for her undergraduate studies, in part, because she wanted to be closer to the artists, galleries, and museums of New York City. After Fordham, she honed her craft at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning a post-baccalaureate certificate in painting and drawing while applying to graduate programs.

Cornell's M.F.A. program offered everything Cunat was looking for: a competitive program in a highly respected university and the opportunity to return to New York State. Her Cornell teaching assistantship introduced her to painter and professor Carl Ostendarp, whose mentorship continues to have a meaningful impact on her as an artist. Graduate seminars increased her awareness of social issues, prompting Cunat to examine her views on identity and her experience as a Japanese American. The private studio, weekly student exhibitions, and discussions with peers and visiting artists all provided opportunities to grow and experiment. 

Since graduating from Cornell, Cunat has had exhibitions at Dinner Gallery, DIMIN, Eric Firestone Gallery, Sunroom Project Space at Wave Hill, and DC Moore Gallery (all in New York), and Peep Projects (Pennsylvania), among others. She lives in New York City with her husband, Piotr Chizinski (M.F.A. '13), and their daughter. Cunat is a frequent lecturer, panelist, and visiting critic.