* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Michael Kukla was born in Prague and moved to the United States in 1971. He received a BFA in painting at Castleton State College in Vermont and then sculpture at Hochschule der Kuenste in Berlin.
Kukla starts each project with monochromatic gouache on paper. He creates cellular structures ranging from black to light gray or silver in tone, representing the positive or negative of sculptural space.
From his paper research emerge sculptures. He works with marble, slate and plywood slabs and bores them with holes that allow light to filter through. Drilling and grinding, he aims to create an ‘organic’ surface that seems natural.
His work has been exhibited in the United States and Europe and, the first American artist to exhibit in Czechoslovakia since the end of World War II, he was featured on live Czech TV.
In 1992 he was commissioned to design the marble pedestal for Apple desktop computers.