TONY KUKICH

2022 M c KNIGHT ARTIST FELLOWSHIP FOR CERAMIC ARTISTS RECIPIENT

Tony Kukich’s work offers the eye a visual feast, a dazzling array of textures, colors, and forms. This is on purpose, as he considers himself someone who makes things and will follow his interests and curiosity. “That’s a very conscious effort,” he says, “I never wanted to be recognized by a certain image or a certain technique. I learn everything that I can learn, whatever seems to make sense to me at the time. That’s what I use. I don’t feel limited.”

Kukich makes sculptures, pottery, paintings, and drawings. Many of his pieces bear a strong sense of composition, with bold overlapping shapes and patterns ranging from delicate to dashing. With titles such as Jester’s Trinity to Cutting Bait to Tornado Cup, you wouldn’t be surprised by the sense of mobility in his artwork. Flowing contours, waves, slabs, columns, and irregular shapes in combination communicate a liveliness, an appreciation for assemblage, and surprise. If it were poetry, it might be described as muscular because of its striking rhythms. A grouping of his pieces across materials feels like a great party full of really interesting people.

When asked about his practice, he shares that he believes that a lot of art culture throws up unnecessary barriers of pretentiousness and preciousness. “I would rather artist presentations be clear and simple because art already has a mystique around it which it doesn’t deserve. We make cathedrals to our museums, and I think that disconnects art from people, and I don’t like it. For me it’s about observing our world and meeting people.”

Where does Kukich’s art come from? He asserts, “I want it to be as human as possible. I want people to understand that it’s coming from a really, really simple place. It’s not coming from some deep wellspring of emotion that I have, that other people don’t possess. I’m just making stuff that makes sense to me, and I want to explain it that way. So when I get the chance, that’s what I try to do put people at ease. It’s a human activity. That’s awesome. That’s really all it is. It’s not pretentious. It can be intellectual, but that’s human too.”

Texture is a prominent part of Kukich’s work, and a viewer will visually experience the evidence of pressing, indenting, scoring, and even the industrial diamond pattern found on manufactured steel plate. There are clay mosaics, eddies of human wrinkles, and a frieze of de-kerned block letters. Kukich is occupied by this aspect of the art form: “I spend a lot of time thinking about texture. And sometimes that directs the work, especially when I get a chance to have an extended period of time in the studio. What can I add to my arsenal as far as textures? That’s the beauty of ceramics. I want people, when they look at my work, to cock their heads and say, ‘How’s he doing that?’”

When asked about a particular affinity to clay compared to other mediums, Kukich muses enthusiastically, “I love it all. I’m a painter too, and I draw, and I think most artists do, but there’s something about clay that is deeply seductive. It’s hard to explain, but everybody who’s handled clay knows what I’m saying.”