Kosta Kulundzic | TROPIC ICONIC
06.07.2019 - 07.31.2019
Art Opening & Artist’s Reception: Friday, June 7, 5-8pm
Art & Wine: SECOND Friday, July 12, 5-8pm
Kosta Kulundzic.
Kosta Kulundzic is a French artist of Serbian ancestry, born in Paris in 1972. The grandson of an orthodox pope, he was nurtured by the specters of religious warfare, Christian dogma, and the burdens of martyrdom. Immersed in the narratives of the gospels, he populates them with his own heroes: Judith and Saint George are updated for Michael Bay's explosive set pieces, slaying dragons and falling to blades and assassins under a blazing Waikiki sun...tourists get caught in the crossfire. With a fastidious attention to detail ("when I paint, I love to stick my nose to the canvas," he says) he renders light, flesh, and spiritual struggle with intensity and passion. In each of his canvasses he invites us to consider the battle between forgiveness and guilt, sin and grace, linking these ancient stories to the exaggerated and stylized violence of modern cinema and graphic novels.
French critic and curator Richard Leydier write :
Kosta Kulundzic workshop is the scene of strange performances. Models portray the martyrdom of ancient Christian saints, updated by the artist in a Hollywood style. Judith endlessly cuts the head of Holofernes with an electric knife. St. George knocks down the dragon with an M16. Saint Etienne smiles sanctimoniously without realizing that his skull was smashed by a big stone. And most of the time, these scenes take place under the Hawaiian sun. The positive mood of the characters along with their wild eyes, evoke those parties that degenerate when, because of alcohol and drugs, guns and knives come out to immolate the victim chosen by mass hysteria.