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Kris Kuksi

"It is far to objectionable to even begin to agree upon what art is or what great art should be. Therefore, it is most certain that myself within this occupation be true to my tastes and to expel those pressures to conform to art-trends new or old."

Kris Kuksi was born March 2nd 1973 in Springfield Missouri, he weighed five pounds. He grew up in neighboring Kansas, son to a blue-collar working mother and absent father. In his youth open country, sparse trees, and later, alcoholic stepfathers surrounded him. His fascination with dead animals foreshadowed his later macabre drawings and painting. The grotesque as it seemed, was beauty.
In adolescence he experienced a secret paranoia of crowds, public places, and the opposite sex, which overshadowed his personal and social development. A withdrawn and oftentimes stealthy individual, he was considered an elusive and mysterious schoolmate, never involved in extracurricular activities or much at all with friends.
In adulthood his discoveries of painting and drawing blossomed his need to achieve a breakthrough to personal freedom by which the environments of his youth had scarred. At this time he explored further fascinations in beauty and the unusual. He soon discovered his distaste for the typical and popular culture of American life. He as he felt belonged to the Old World, and in his quiet time alone felt that mankind of today is elastic and fragile mostly driven by greed and lust.
His art best fits into 'Fantastic Realism', yet the overall body of works have no specific category as seen in his broad range of ideas. He feels that using many directions and styles in art are necessary to express his voice and he feels that to succumb to just one style is without growth or diversity. A quiet and gentle man, Kris Kuksi continues his ideas of beauty and the strange in art while living a lifestyle suited to a nocturnal and oftentimes impulsive individual.

As one of the emerging artists in the movement of Fantastic Realism, Kris Kuksi has become a profound messenger of the subversive and illusionistic ambiguities deep within the human psyche. His sophisticated and enchanting paintings suggest both outrageous and perplexing juxtapositions. From an obscure location of rural America, Kris Kuksi is amused by the macabre and enigmatic as his images are enmeshed in successive layers of incongruous and bizarre subjects. Producing in a world ruled by hackneyed and intrusive contemporary art, Kris Kuksi has continued in the old masters tradition of finely crafted techniques and disciplined anatomical study. He borrows from the inspiration of hallucinatory patterns and shapes deep within the delirium of paranoia and obsessive behaviors. His beautiful yet peculiar compositions stand to last as the work of a keen observer fascinated with the inexplicable circumstances of the human experience. His work has been included in exhibitions throughout Europe, The United States, and Australia and is a part of many private and public collections. He has also been featured in international art magazines and has sold works through Sotheby's art auctions.

A list of Kuksi facts and favorites:

1. Favorite drink: water
2. Favorite sport to watch: none
3. Current pet: an unborn robin fetus in a jar
4. Favorite Month: March
5. Favorite day of the year: March 2nd
6. Favorite flavor: vanilla
7. Living arrangement: rented apartment, next door to a hermaphrodite
8. Favorite smell: rain
9. Time he goes to bed: 8 am
10. Time he wakes up: 4 pm
11. What hangs on the wall above his bed: a hundred year old wooden leg
12. Favorite animal: the gharial
13. Favorite food: sushi
14. Favorite city: Vienna
15. Astrological sign: Pisces
16. Least favorite food: celery
17. Favorite number: 8
18. Least favorite number: 9
19. Other talents: Music
20. Favorite time of day: 2 am