Portrait of Jana Kunzler in the equestrian magazine «Kavallo»

In August 2025, the Swiss equestrian magazine «Kavallo» published an article about Swiss artist Jana Kunzler - her art and her path of becoming the artist she is today.

The original article is published in this blog article. For all English speaking visitors of this website, we translated the text for you.

Equine Inspiration for Perfect Lines

With her dancing horse silhouettes, Jana Künzler has already attracted attention in the art worlds of Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands. It is therefore high time to introduce her multifaceted equine paintings and their creator to her home country as well.

Text Muriel Willi
Images Jana Künzler

Cover image of the 6-page article about Equine Artist Kunzler in the magazine Kavallo 08/25

Large, rectangular fields of diverging colours merge on collages made from handcrafted paper. Above them, horse silhouettes dance in sweeping, expressive shapes. Sometimes only the head and neck fill the composition; at other times, an entire horse gallops across the image or two equine bodies intertwine. «In my paintings, I want to show the grace and joyful movement of horses that fascinate me so deeply», explains Jana Künzler, whose works are multilayered in every sense of the word. She expresses herself through an abstract visual language and does not shy away from pairing colours that may seem to clash at first glance. Despite this artistic tension, she masterfully balances colour, materiality and form, creating harmonious equine paintings with a strong sense of identity.

Inspired by Her Grandmother

Behind this thoughtful, figurative «equine art» is not the graduate of an art academy but a business economist with a master’s degree from the University of St. Gallen. «After finishing school, I was very close to enrolling in an art programme, but my head won over my heart and I decided to study business administration instead», the 32-year-old explains. After completing her studies, Künzler, who specialised in Business Innovation, worked in Zurich’s financial sector. Today, she manages an online platform for students and apprentices.

Alongside this structured and rational professional path, she has succeeded in establishing herself internationally as an equine artist, with exhibitions in Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands. Currently, Künzler, who simplifies her name to «Kunzler» abroad for easier pronunciation, is working on making a name for herself in her home country as well.

Dutch Equine Art Fair 2023, Hollandsche Manege Amsterdam

But how did art eventually claim such a significant space in the life of the Thurgau native? «A stroke of fate in 2017 was the starting point of my artistic career», she reveals quietly. When her paternal grandmother developed dementia, she had to leave her apartment in Lucerne and move in with the Künzler family, who were then living on an equestrian property in Thurgau. While clearing out her grandmother’s apartment, who had been a strong-willed and somewhat distant personality, Jana discovered an art studio. «The sculptural works and paintings my grandmother created from handmade paper fascinated me deeply», she recalls. This discovery awakened the artistic passion that had long lain dormant within her.

Soon, Jana Künzler was spending weekends in the studio until three in the morning, experimenting with colours, shapes and especially papermaking. «This material feels very special to me; its texture radiates warmth and calm», she says. The creative process became an ideal counterbalance to her professional life, filling her with energy and joy.

In Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland, Jana Künzler has already presented her work. In Italy, for example, her pieces were shown at Fieracavalli.

The Horse Passion Runs in the Family

Künzler did not only carry forward her grandmother’s artistic legacy. While her early works featured no horses, they increasingly took centre stage and today they are indispensable. Even when she creates abstract landscapes, one can often detect lines reminiscent of equine forms.

«Horses have always been the focal point of our family. My grandmother passed her passion on to my father and my mother, sister and I are just as horse-obsessed», she explains. She enjoys interacting with horses and exploring nature with them, although she has no sporting ambitions. Today, seven horses belong to the Künzler family, ranging from a Shetland pony to an Andalusian. «This baroque breed is probably where my fondness for full, rounded equine shapes, which often appear in my work, comes from», she adds.

Her continual return to the horse motif stems from the sense of home and constancy horses give her. Throughout her childhood, she moved frequently with her parents in search of the best place for the horses. This search eventually led her parents and their herd to Portugal, where they now live on a ten-hectare equestrian property.

When her parents left Switzerland for Portugal, Jana felt drawn along. By chance, a small artists’ residency was located in the very village where her parents settled. In 2023, she resigned from her job in finance and moved to Portugal for about a year to dedicate herself fully to her art and the craft of papermaking. «Through creative expression, I have found a way to live out different sides of my personality and in handcrafted natural paper I have found my ideal medium», she says with enthusiasm.

The horses of Family Künzler in Portugal

Uniting Many Facets

Her equine art has taken her to several countries. She realised her first exhibition in 2021 at Fieracavalli in Verona, Italy. She is represented by a Dutch agency that discovered her on social media and is a member of the Dutch artist collective «Paard Verzameld». Her first exhibition in Switzerland took place in 2023 at «Arte Arbon» in Arbon Castle on Lake Constance. About this milestone, Künzler, who kept her artistic pursuits private for many years, says: «This first public appearance in Switzerland felt like coming home and was an important step in my artistic journey.»

She considers it a great privilege to have found something in art that captivates her so deeply and provides such balance to her career. Art also allows her to travel and meet inspiring people and places. She is currently setting up a studio in her second home, the Portuguese village of Maceira. Renovating the space is her latest project.

Despite all the fortunate twists that have opened doors for her in the art world, Künzler still nurtures one unfulfilled dream: «I would love to exhibit my work alongside that of my grandmother to bring the story full circle.»

— This text was written by Muriel Willi for the Kavallo Magazine in German and translated into English —