The Miniature Nightmares of Kris Kuksi

Nightmare cities of strange idols, fixation with death, and arcane devices have long pervaded weird art and literature. However, the artist Kris Kuksi thrusts these themes upward to a new level, while coming closer than anyone in ages to modeling hell itself. Kuksi is a talented painter, but he is best known for his "mixed assemblages" of stunning strangeness. Looking at any of Kuksi's works in this vein makes one thing crystal clear: when it comes to displaying human malevolence and the omnipotence of death, Kuksi does not mess around. Each of these assembled artworks is like a self-contained festival of little terrors.


In style, Kuksi's miniatures couldn't fail to gain the adoration of even those who would burn him as a heretic for his twisted re-shaping of Old World designs into expressions of nightmare. His individual models, though composed of thousands of tiny frights, come together into a greater complexity that can only be described as awesome. Like most great artists, he is also guided by a very specific vision he hopes to communicate to his fellow creatures from the blackness. Kuksi's official website (linked above) has this to say of his inspiration:

In personal reflection, he feels that in the world today much of mankind is oftentimes a frivolous and fragile being driven primarily by greed and materialism. He hopes that his art exposes the fallacies of Man, unveiling a new level of awareness to the viewer.

This adds a further note of interest to Kuksi's profile as an artist deserving of placement in the weird genre. Like most other notable luminaries of the outre, Kris Kuksi strongly seeks to communicate a certain world view that's contained within each small demon figure he produces in his displays. Many viewing Kuksi's art will draw parallels to the dark artistic geniuses of Europe's Middle Ages who churned out imposing, stark, and sometimes terrifying creations, supposedly in support of God and Kingdom, or to encourage man's salvation. Incredibly, this latter aim is not so far removed from the description of Kuksi's underlying motives in building and exhibiting his weird worlds. Of course, the "awareness" cited in the quote above doesn't necessarily mean salvation or a reversal of human course (sin). If, like Thomas Ligotti, Kuksi merely desires to pry our eyes open to the frightening reality of a conscious existence haunted by Death and a hostile society, then he has accomplished his mission.


Whether this is the goal or not, and regardless of whether it's satisfied for the artist, Kuksi has earned a reputation that can only increase as others see his art. In the weird realm, he should also gain greater interest as well. His work demands our attention by showing that strange malevolence can come in tiny, but insanely intricate forms--a principle well within the parameters of the reality observed by Kuksi and so many others.

-Grim Blogger