Early on, her work was collected by major government institutions, including the National Gallery of Indonesia.
She participated in the first all female painting and sculpture exhibition in 1956, presented at Seniman Indonesia Muda (Young Indonesian Artists)'s studio in Yogyakarta.
[3] Her deteriorating health eventually limited her public visibility as well as that of her work, but she continued to paint through the mid 2000s.
After Kustiyah's passing, her husband, the well-known sculptor Edhi Sunarso, built a private museum in her honor, called the Griya Seni Hj.
[4] When he passed in 2016, he was buried next to her husband Edhi Sunarso at Girisapto Imogiri Artist Cemetery in Bantul, Yogyakarta.