Anika Kuntze visual artist

Anika Kuntze is a 48 year old Honolulu based artist. She immigrated here from Berlin Germany in 2017. Her art can best be described as surreal visionary art even though it is hard to find a label for her unique style.

It is influenced by the early surrealist movement and by cubism. She has also worked with traditional amazonian plant medicines in ceremonies, so the psychedelic organic visuals and teachings she recieves are woven throughout her body of work. She is very interested in finding pathways through the hidden and mystical layers of existence.

Her main focus is on discovering the rich and interesting worlds inside and outside of oneself. Growing up with a mother who always used to mix and experiment with different plants, herbs and fluids (old school pharmacist) and a father who’s true love has always been plants and birds, she now remembers her roots and follows the infinite variations of organic structures and the potent regenerative healing powers they hold.

She grew up by a lake in the middle of West-Germany still a very divided country back then, with relatives living in the east part. She moved to Berlin after the wall came down in the mid 90’s. And lived and worked as a Designer, Photographer and visual Artist in a rapidly transforming and uniting Berlin until moving to Honolulu in 2017.

Her work deals with the reassuring circles of regeneration and transformation. Inner and outer worlds are explored in this process. She uses various mediums to represent the elements and materials Mother Earth has to offer. Experimenting and playing is a crucial part in her creative process.

Her larger works are full of detail created in a meditative – and conscious flow state.

As the viewer moves closer he/she can get lost is a world of shapes and surreal forms, a world of shadow and light. When looked at from a distance the image we see can appear as something very different. It comes across as an optical play, zooming in and out is part of the desired process.

With sometimes contrasting tools and colors she creates „in between spaces“ and leaves emotional and associative responses fully up to the viewer. Leaving an open space with as little manipulation as possible. By focusing in and out on microstructures and the disorientation it leaves one with, not knowing what’s up and what’s down, she hopefully evokes the question:

„Where and essentially Who am I“