Tina Kukielski joined Art21 after more than thirteen years as a contemporary art curator. She was a co-curator of the acclaimed 2013 Carnegie International, bringing together 35 established and emerging artists from 19 different countries. During her time at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 2002–2010, she worked to acquire and mount exhibitions by a wide range of celebrated contemporary artists.

As lead curator on the Hillman Photography Initiative at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Kukielski launched a number of digital initiatives and films series. In 2014, Kukielski co-produced a documentary film about Andy Warhol in partnership with artist Cory Arcangel documenting a digital conservation project which brought renewed attention to nearly forgotten artworks that Warhol made on an Amiga personal computer in 1985.

Kukielski is a contributor to Artforum, Mousse Contemporary Art Magazine, and the 2015 anthology on digital art, Mass Effect: Internet Art in the 21st Century. She has been a visiting critic at Columbia, Yale, Princeton, and Carnegie Mellon, and has taught courses in the MFA programs at Parsons School of Design and the University of Hartford. Kukielski has given talks in the cities of Beirut, Chicago, Dubai, Miami, Prague, and at the Art Basel Miami and Frieze art fairs. She received her B.A. in Art History from Boston University and pursued graduate coursework in modern and contemporary art at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

Tina Kukielski was appointed as Executive Director by the Art21 Board of Trustees in January 2016 to succeed Susan Sollins, who founded and led the organization for seventeen years.