Kris Kuksi and Mark Wagner Bounty
Bounty is a two-person exhibition featuring Kris Kuksi’s mixed-media assemblages and Mark Wagner’s montages made of United States banknotes. Bounty highlights the thematic and stylistic similarities between Kuksi and Wagner’s practices. Both artists rely heavily on the accumulation and arrangement of signifiers to illustrate power structures. Stylistically, Wagner and Kuksi’s approaches are characterized by arranging found objects into intricate compositions.
Kris Kuksi lives and works in Lawrence, KS. Born in 1973 in Springfield, Missouri, Kuksi earned his BFA and MFA in painting at Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas. His work is in the collections of the Crocker Museum of Art, Sacramento, California; Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI; National Museum of the Marine Corps, Triangle, VA; and Nike Corporate Collection, Beaverton, OR.
Kris Kuksi, Prevailing Subversion, 2019, Mixed media assemblage, 34 x 38 x 10 inches (86.4 x 96.5 x 25.4 cm)
Kris Kuksi, Prevailing Subversion (detail), 2019, Mixed media assemblage, 34 x 38 x 10 inches (86.4 x 96.5 x 25.4 cm)
Kris Kuksi, Redemption, 2019, Mixed media assemblage, 28 x 34 x 11 inches (71.1 x 86.4 x 27.9 cm)
Kris Kuksi, Redemption (detail), 2019, Mixed media assemblage, 28 x 34 x 11 inches (71.1 x 86.4 x 27.9 cm)
Kris Kuksi, Churchtank Type 15, 2019, Mixed media assemblage, 37 x 15 1/2 x 42 in (94 x 39.4 x 106.7 cm)
Kris Kuksi, Churchtank Type 15 (detail), 2019, Mixed media assemblage, 37 x 15 1/2 x 42 in (94 x 39.4 x 106.7 cm)
Mark Wagner currently lives and works in Lancaster, PA. Wagner’s work is in dozens of institutions, including the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; and the US Federal Reserve Board.
Mark Wagner, From Darkest Decay Dumb Blossoms of New Mingling Leap Greenly Into the Ripe Air, 2017, Currency on panel, 72 x 48 inches (182.9 x 121.9 cm)
Mark Wagner, Trade Winds, 2018, Currency on panel, 48 x 36 inches (121.9 x 91.4 cm)
Mark Wagner, Lord, What Fools These Mortal's Be!, 2018, Currency on panel, 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
Mark Wagner, Big Data , 2019, Currency on panel, 62 x 62 inches (157.5 x 157.5 cm)
Mark Wagner, Mammoth Cutbacks, 2018, Currency on panel, 24 x 18 inches (61 x 45.7 cm)
Mark Wagner, American Idle, 2019, Currency on panel, 20 x 15 inches (50.8 x 38.1 cm)