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| Kris Kuksi |
Kuksi is an assemblage artist who was born on March 2, 1973 in Springfield, Missouri. He was the youngest of three children and was raised by a single mother. Growing up, his family wasn't very economically stable; one effect that this had on Kuksi was the lack of cable television. In fact, he claims that the only channel he would ever watch was PBS, Kuksi believes that watching PBS throughout his childhood ended up fueling his creativity, since all that was on the channel was educational documentaries and, as Kuksi calls it, "British stuff", like Monty Python. "If it hadn't been that way" he says, "I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing".
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| Early drawing by Kuksi |
Early on, Kuksi focused on Gothic-inspired drawings and basic realism in his paintings. Currently, however, he is focusing more on sculpture.
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| Plague Parade by Kuksi |
His work falls under the genre of "Fantastic Realism", and utilizes surrealistic aspects along with assemblage art. Kuksi utilizes found objects in his work, such as dollhouse parts, miniature army toys and jewelry, along with other objects. However, despite his focus on collecting found objects, he is not afraid to spend in order to get what he wants for his work. Kuksi recently purchased an eight-foot tall sculpture of a giraffe that he plans to incorporate into a new piece. After retrieving his materials, he then distorts them in any way he pleases in order to create large and elaborate compositions. He also uses wood and metal scraps.
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| Table of random objects used by Kuksi |
Currently, Kuksi works out of a studio that is built into a church in North Lawrence, Ohio. He makes his work in order to portray narratives, while also working with the idea of polarity. He plays with the contrasts between light and dark, masculine and feminine, good and evil, etc. When it comes to his narratives, Kuski likes to leave the meaning up to the viewer, saying "If you don't have the full puzzle together, it's a little bit more interesting, because your mind gets to fill the gaps...You're just going to tell part of the story".
Kuksi making an allusion to Michelangelo's Creation of Adam
Kuksi's work will soon be featured in a solo show titled "Kris Kuksi. New Works" at the Lawrence Arts Center; it will be his first solo exhibition.
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| Untitled, unfinished piece. |
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| Close up of one of Kuksi's sculptures, giving more insight to his materials and detailing work. |
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| Churchtanks: Kuksi comments on the relationship between war and religion. |
