Anita Kunz: "Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage"

The Words Festival is thrilled to present an evening visit with internationally acclaimed, Toronto-based artist and illustrator Anita Kunz, who will join Words Artistic Director Josh Lambier to talk about her recent project, “Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage.”

Anita Kunz: "Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage"
Hosted by Josh Lambier
30 January 2025, 7PM
Registration is free or by donation

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Our conversation will explore Anita’s collection of portraits of extraordinary women she has portrayed from ancient to current times, many unknown or underrecognized, whose discoveries, inventions, creativity, and accomplishments have changed world. This collection uncovers, amplifies, and celebrates the achievements of 450 changemaking women worldwide, while also weaving together a “lost history” of women’s distinctive contributions within every possible field of endeavor.​

Kunz’s project began in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when the artist spent hours in her Toronto studio seeking inspiration by searching the internet for information about notable women in history. Though the subject had always interested her, Kunz realized that her knowledge base was limited, and she became determined to fill in the gaps. She began painting portraits of accomplished women across time, cultures, and geography, accompanied by texts she assembled to tell their stories. These portraits form the ever-growing nucleus of Original Sisters: Portraits of Tenacity and Courage, an exhibition and book that together bring to light hundreds of women trailblazers who made and changed history.

Featured portraits reflect a wide diversity of women, cultures, time periods, and fields of achievement, including powerful female pharaoh Hatshepsut, engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, anthropologist Margaret Mead, dancer Josephine Baker, ballerina Maria Tallchief, singer-songwriter Nina Simone, environmentalist Rachel Carson, poet bell hooks, painter and photographer Dora Maar, artist Alice Neel, environmental activist Greta Thunberg, primatologist Jane Goodall, politician and activist Shirley Chisholm, current vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and many more.​ Each of these exquisitely rendered portraits is accompanied by succinct descriptions, written by the artist, of their noteworthy contributions to the world.

The Original Sisters series appeared in London, Ontario at TAP Centre for Creativity in 2022 and is currently on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Commissioned to create the cover art for celebrated magazines such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Time Magazine, Anita has been recognized for her influential work with accolades and awards including induction into the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts and appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada in recognition of her outstanding achievements as an illustrator.