Kukula

Kukula was born in a small Israeli village an hour north of Tel Aviv. At the age of eighteen, instead of enlisting in the army as is traditional, she decided to study art. She earned her degree in illustration from Vital-Shenkar in 2003 and moved to San Francisco, where she lives with her husband and splits her time between painting and her clothing line. Growing up surrounded by holocaust survivors is evidenced by the near constant theme of reconciling innocence and vulnerability, dreams and nightmares. The youth of her characters is a part of this theme. Her girls are made jarring by their nudity, the situations that they're in, at times erotic or just disturbing; and the adult expressions on their faces, somewhere on a scale between vacancy and seduction. Her choice to paint on wood also fits--natural yet unnatural, part of the real world but not exactly reality.
Kukula's love of dolls spans from before she entered college and is clearly visible in the oversized heads and tiny bodies of her feminine characters. "The first antique doll I bought...survived two world wars, both the manufacturer and the original owner are gone forever," says Kukula, "So the very immortality of any artifact is always reminiscent of the death of something intimately connected to it."
                Kukula's work is inspired by classical art, the Renaissance and Art Deco, but is also informed by contemporary pop culture. She explores the ideas of immortality, consumption and production of art. "The whole process of painting becomes rather macabre, like writing your own requiem," she says. "Art survives—it carries within traces of its dead producer."

 Sacrifice (The Uniworm) (2009)
Oil on board
19.5 x 24 inches

 At A Stand Still  (2009)
Oil on wood
10 x 12 inches

 Complete Exhaustion (2009)
Oil on wood
5 x 7 inches

Swept Away (2008)
Oil on wood
16 x 12 inches

Last Words (2007)
Acrylic on wood
5 x 7 inches