New art exhibit lifts up overlooked women at the forefront of historical change

Artist Anita Kunz initially planned to paint only a hundred portraits of women who, throughout history, have challenged the social and political norms of their time.

But she kept finding more.

"Once you start looking, they're everywhere," said Kunz. "I may actually continue and just see how many I can do because there's so many extraordinary women out there who haven't been celebrated and should have been celebrated and should still be celebrated."

For now, the final tally of completed portraits rests at 365 - one for each day that Kunz dedicated to learning about her subjects. The finished collection, entitled Original Sisters: 365 Portraits of Tenacity and Courage, is showing at the TAP Centre for Creativity in downtown London, Ont., from Nov. 5 to Jan. 14.

The idea for the project came at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim, said Kunz, was to find trailblazers, leaders, mentors, and rebels from all over the world as she dealt with present-day uncertainties. Examples include model Grace Jones, activist Ifrah Ahmed and queen Rani of Jhansi.

The stories start as early as 40,000 BC when anthropologists say the first artists of our species were more likely women than men. In one portrait, Kunz pays tribute to an unnamed Paleolithic cave woman overlooked as a hand painter due to a male bias in scientific literature.

"I was particularly drawn to the artists," Kunz said. "In my life, I went to art school, and I learned almost entirely about the male artists, so discovering some of these extraordinary female artists was one of the things that was really great for me."

"But then again, there are scientists and mathematicians and women who were denied the Nobel Prize even though they deserved it, and women who are activists against genital mutilation and acid attacks in India. It's the whole gamut, and you know, when I'm talking about this, 365 isn't enough."

Kunz, an acclaimed illustrator whose work has been published in Time magazine and Rolling Stone, also sells prints of portraits of Mahsa Amini and Maria Prymachenko.

Amini's death after three days in custody by Iranian morality police has sparked international protests, while Prymachenko's Ukrainian folk art was destroyed in the Russian invasion. Proceeds from the sales will go toward worthy causes, Kunz said.

She described the project as a "labour of love," honouring the women who had come before her and suffered for women's rights.

"I sort of think that there are dangerous things happening in politics," she said.

"I think that women…we have rights now. But I don't know, it just seems that they're always in danger of being taken away. And I think these women deserve to be recognized."

Kunz will be attending the show's opening reception on Saturday night from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.