Cynthia Kukla, a Chicago native, received her BFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, under Ray Yoshida, and MFA in Painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She exhibits paintings, watercolors, drawings and sculptures in curated museum exhibits since graduate school on four continents, in over fifty solo shows and nearly three-hundred curated or group exhibitions. Her first tenured position was at Northern Kentucky University, first sabbatical as a visiting artist in Geneva, Switzerland. “Objects without Prejudice’ Series was created there followed by the ‘Great Queen’ Series including 18 foot triptychs and bronze sculptures made at the University of Cincinnati for ‘Thrones for a Great Queen.’ At Illinois State University, her first sabbatical was at Miami University, Ohio. At her Cincinnati sabbatical studio, she completed 230 paintings and 13 sketchbooks leading to numerous exhibitions. In 2004, she was a keynote speaker for the symposium for the exhibition “Coming of Age in Ancient Greece,” at the Cincinnati Art Museum.