The Canadian artist Anita Kunz was born in Toronto, Ontario, and grew up in Kitchener. In her early life, she was influenced by the illustration work of her uncle, Robert Kunz, who created art for educational publishing. His work imparted to her the potential for illustration to hold social messages, leading her to study at the Ontario College of Art, from which she graduated in 1978. She started sending her work to various magazines after beginning her career with assignments in advertising.

In 1982 she caught the attention of American art director Fred Woodward when he commissioned an illustration of Ray Charles for Westward magazine. Her depiction of Charles with piano keys for teeth exceeded Woodward’s expectations, and prompted their working relationship through his transitions to Texas Monthly, Regardie’s, and Rolling Stone.

Anita Kunz traces her influences to the works of British artists like Sue Coe, Richard Mills and Ian Pollock, which helped her understand that illustration can be used to express a strong political or social viewpoint. As a Canadian who recognises the extent to which Canada is immersed in American culture and politics, she believes that responding visually from a Canadian perspective is useful and important.

Kunz has lived in London, New York City and Toronto, working for design firms, book publishers and advertising agencies in Germany, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Canada, South Africa, Holland, Portugal, France and England. Her many clients include Time, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, The New York Times, Sony Music, and Random House. She has illustrated over fifty book jacket covers, and has created cover art and editorial illustrations for many magazines and newspapers.

She has been included in exhibitions since 1987, when she showed a collection of her works at Canada House in Trafalgar Square, London. In 1997 she put on a one-woman show at the Foreign Press office in New York City, and in 1998 had a solo show at Tokyo’s Creation Gallery. The Society of Illustrators' Museum of American Illustration honoured her with a mid-career retrospective of her work in 2002.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for suggesting the inclusion of this artist, and for supplying many of the images.