Marilyn Kuksht

Marilyn Kuksht  works with welded iron, steel, and cast bronze to create a wide range of playful and imaginative sculptural objects.  Since reluctantly releasing her first piece to a friend  in the early 1990s, Marilyn has shown extensively  in the US and in Europe, and has been  an active member of the San Francisco Bay area art community.  Her vision is influenced by two degrees in the arts from University of Washington in Seattle, and by a broad range of life experience, from jewelry design to corporate banking, resulting in a body of work that is provocative, thoughtfully crafted,  and visually exciting. 

Many of her pieces represent a single emotion, idea, or human characteristic.  

"Grasp", Shown here, expresses these concepts well.  The piece resembles a human arm and hand, holding or clutching a handful of coin-like metal disks.  The claw-like fingers emphasize a feeling of greed or willful possession.   The piece is enigmatic in that it is both powerful and disturbing.  It has beauty in its form, like a crown, nest, or even a triumphant trophy, but at the same time it emotes disturbing themes of wealth and greed.

Marilyn's sculptures are often figurative, with a minimalist approach to representing a human form.  Just enough of a figure is shown or implied to support the theme of the work.  Marilyn did not focus her energy toward sculpture until leaving her full time career in the banking industry in 1989.  Now, after ten years of experimentation, she handles her medium of choice with ease.  Her work shows an intuitive sense of composition, and an ability to express a great deal with a minimum of effort.

"trapezoid"

Although the main focus of her work seems to be form and expression, Marilyn also experiments with surface textures and patinas.  Her surfaces vary from natural rust to polished iron. Several of her recent works take advantage of specialized acid patinas that give the works an unusual luminous sheen. 

This ominous dancing beast has a plow blade body, tubes for legs, and a motorcycle fender head.  Marilyn's studio is cluttered with bits and pieces of metal, old tools, auto parts, and other metal objects she has collected to incorporate into her art.  Most of her work is not so obviously created from found objects, nevertheless she takes full advantage of the original forms of the objects she collects to enhance the emotive, figurative, and symbolic qualities of her work.

"Spiral"

Visit Marilyn's web site at http://www.kuksht.com/