SF Examiner Writeup

In millennial terminology, Marilyn Kuksht has been a "virtual" sculptor all her life. From jewelry design and fabrication to the etching of circuit boards and restoration of antique live-abroad boats, Kuksht's artistic sensibility was evolving even as she was successfully climbing the corporate ladder to become a senior vice president at Bank of America. When she decided to trade her rosewood-appointed executive office in downtown San Francisco for a live/work loft in the "Dogpatch" neighborhood, she brought to bear a diverse collection of studies, art explorations and craftsman skills and a history of creating varied living environments.

In Kuksht's work we see at play elements of energy, juxtaposition, tension, flow, and intrigue. It is unlikely that these forces of life and work would have evolved this way if she had taken a more traditional artistic path.

Sculpting is for Kuksht a vital means to blend and express artistic and social statements. Those who incorporate found objects in their work risk merely elevating the mundane, prompting the viewer to trace the origins of the component parts. Kuksht re-employs once-functional objects and industrial detritus in a sort of quitessential recycling, but focuses on creating a new, refined sense of form and grace especially well realized in those works ultimately cast in bronze. The viewer first responds to the art - an unique overall movement, balance and character, sometimes even humor - not to the source of materials.