| Michael Kukla's monochromatic drawings on paper are built up with successive layers of ink to creating cellular fields that have the illusion of depth. Vortices of negative space imply complex nebulous forms fragile to touch, movements of bubbles across a foam surface, and flat surfaces with outbreaks of sponge-like areas. The procedural cellular approach approximates the geometry of packed soap bubbles, when applied to sculpture the memories of these bubbles appear as fossilized remnant textures.
Artist Studios | Megan Garwood
Michael Kukla abstracts nature and time's effect on natural elements using Minimalistic techniques and empirical facts. He renders an organic ethos from static medium by concentrating on cellular-level figuration and form; by building upon and reworking two-dimensional pieces, and; by subtracting from three-dimensional façade. Admittedly, his works hardly look touched by the hand of man, more by the hand of nature.
A celebrated sculptor, Kukla carves at natural medium (slate, marble, plywood slabs) to form a sculpture in the round as well as see-through, exposing several layers beneath the surface. Purity exudes from marble work, in which Kukla mimics the patterns found in the stone to achieve realistic surfaces.
With gouache on paper and painting, Kukla plays with negative and positive space by building thick layers of monochromatic, repetitive shapes, which he has borrowed from cellular structure. Heavy-handled pictorial space echoes the ethereal cycles found in biological creation. Kukla interlocks growth and decline by interweaving dark amoebic lines with silver-hued highlights.
Kukla (born in Prague, Czech Republic) lives and works in New York City and shows in numerous international galleries. Kukla moved to the United States in 1971. Later, Czech TV featured him as the first American artist to exhibit in Ostrava, Czechoslovakia since the end of World War II. In 1987, he received a BFA in Painting from Castleton State College, Castleton, VT; in 1992 he studied sculpture at Hochshule der Kuenste in Berlin, Germany. Also in 1992, Kukla designed marble pedestals for the full-line of Apple computers.
Kentler International Drawing Center: Marked Differences | Roberta Waddell, June 3, 2011
Michael Kukla's luminous, cellular-like forms are powerfully three-dimensional, worked up from a dark to a very light, shimmering gray gouache. Drawings, like Untitled 19 and 20, inform his sculpture, in which the artist pierces and transforms marble, slate and plywood slabs into seemingly organic, perforated structures.
Artist Michael Kukla's Extraordinary Cellular Dematerialization Of Marble And Wood
Feel Guide Online Magazine | Posted on August 4, 2011 by Brent Lambert
Michael Kukla is the artist to thank for these brilliant explorations of sculptural dematerialization via both wood and marble. Kukla's investigations are an attempt to embed cellular-like structures into these materials with drilling and grinding in order to awaken new potential realities in both materiality and texture. Incredibly stunning work.
Artist Michael Kukla's Extraordinary Cellular Dematerialization Of Marble And Wood
Feel Guide Online Magazine | Posted on August 4, 2011 by Brent Lambert
Michael Kukla is the artist to thank for these brilliant explorations of sculptural dematerialization via both wood and marble. Kukla's investigations are an attempt to embed cellular-like structures into these materials with drilling and grinding in order to awaken new potential realities in both materiality and texture. Incredibly stunning work.
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