Kris Kuksi

Artist's Statement

I get inspired by the industrial world, all the rigidity of machinery, the network of pipes, wires, refineries, etc. Then I join that with its opposite: flowing, graceful, harmonious, and pleasing design of the Baroque and Rococo. And of course I add a bit of weirdness and the macabre. It's all about how I see the evolution of what man makes his created environment look like. I had such a major emphasis in painting and drawing earlier in my career – and had a great time with it – but I always felt something was missing. I knew deep inside I was a builder, and so my 3-D work is the expansion into that realm. I still enjoy painting and doing figurative work, but those moments are reserved for special times. Yet sculptural works are wonderfully intricate constructions of pop culture effluvia like plastic model kits, injection molded toys, dolls, plastic skulls, knick-knack figurines, miniature fencing, toy animals, mechanical parts and ornate frames or furniture parts, assembled into grotesque tableaux that look a bit like an explosion in Hieronymus Bosch's attic.

My art speaks of a timelessness: potentiality and motion attempting to reach on forever, and yet pessimistically delayed, forced into the stillness of death and eternal sleep. I treat morbidity with a sympathetic touch and symbolize the paradox of the death of the individual by objective personification of death. There is a fear of this consciousness because it drops in upon us without mercy, and yet there is a need to appeal to it in order to provide a sense of security, however deluded that sense may be. My art warns us that this appeal is irrelevant, and that we should be slow to create a need for it. The themes I use also teach us that although death may pursue us arbitrarily, we should never neglect to mourn the tremendous loss of individual potential.

In personal reflection, I feel that in the world today much of mankind is oftentimes a frivolous and fragile being driven primarily by greed and materialism. I hope that my art exposes the fallacies of Man, unveiling a new level of awareness to the viewer.

– KK

Artist's Bio

Kris Kuksi is represented by Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, New York. He has received several awards and prizes and has been featured in over 100 exhibitions in galleries and museums worldwide including the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. His art can also be seen in a number of international art magazines, book covers and theatrical posters, and is featured in both public and private collections in the United States, Europe, and Australia including private collections such as those of Mark Parker (Nike CEO), Kay Alden (three time Emmy award winning writer for Young and the Restless and The Bold and the Beautiful), Fred Durst (musician, and film director), and Chris Weitz (movie director of The Golden Compass, and American Pie).

Selected Recent Exhibitions: 2010 – group exhibition, Scope Art Fair, Miami, Florida; Lowbrow Tarot Show, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Los Angeles, California; The Blab! Show, CoproGallery, Santa Monica, California; Summer Group Show, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, New York; solo exhibition, Scope Art Fair, Basel, Switzerland; Meticulous Engagement, San Francisco, California; High Fructose Group Show: Overdose, CoproGallery, Santa Monica, California; Lush Life 2, Roq la Rue Gallery, Seattle, Washington. 2009 – group exhibition, Scope Art Fair, Miami, Florida; Beast Anthology, Joshua Liner Gallery, New York, New York; Steampunk, Museum of History of Science, Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom; The 13th Hour, Last Rites Gallery, New York, New York; Carnival of Fires, Gallery 5, Richmond, Virginia; The Blab! Show, Copro / Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, California; Kansas Master's Invitational, Strecker Nelson Gallery, Manhattan, Kansas; Monster?, Copro / Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, California; Summer Group Show '09, Stolen Space, London, United Kingdom; Divine Invasion, Meta Gallery, Toronto, Ontario; Overdose, Copro / Nason Gallery, Santa Monica, California.