Contemporary artist Sinisa Kukec is almost your average dude. He likes to drink beer, flirt with girls, watch mindless action movies, “research” porn. But then there’s an altogether unique, mind-bogglingly creative side to the artist who’ll be taking up residence at Redux over the course of the next month.

Kukec’s exhibition, From Void to Void, is a sequel to his Farewell Fountain show in Miami last fall, and will run from its Friday opening until September 10. Although the art is expected to be extra vibrant, it also has a forlorn flavor to it.

The 43-year-old Kukec uses his urban intellect, slick sense of humor, and green-savvy imagination to create bizarre and beautiful art that turns garbage into gold. His art begins very literally on the streets outside his Miami home.

“I have never lived in a city with so much trash on the side of the road. At the end of each month, you can potentially find a whole new body of work. Lately, I have been attracted to office furniture, desks, and chairs, or what I like to call points-of-power furniture,” Kukec says.

Kukec’s recent works begin with a “point of power” and build from there to ultimately reflect his common theme, or the core of his art. “The core of it is apparently consciousness, and everything outside of it. I like to think about it as a lifetime,” he says. Kukec was born in Croatia, grew up in Canada, and, thanks to an artist green card, has lived throughout the United States. He currently resides in a “cave-like dwelling” somewhere in Miami, where he utilizes very few amenities. Although he’s lived there for five years, he only installed hot water last winter. He calls his living/work situation “urban camping” and admits that it affects his work since what he creates is largely autobiographical.

“My work is my life and vice versa. I am interested in understanding my experience of consciousness and how it relates to all the things outside of me,” he says.

Kukec has never visited Charleston, and is looking forward to it not only because he has read that it’s America’s sexiest city, but because, in his travels, he’s learned to value discovering places like Redux.

“It’s an opportunity to share and exchange thoughts, ideas, and feelings about stuff around us, as a human and as an artist. I am a perpetual student,” he says.

As for From Void to Void, Kukec warns viewers not to have any expectations — he says that they usually lead to disappointment. Even the amount of sculptures that will be displayed is a secret.

“Over the past year, you can say I have been fighting for love in a dream, and I guess dreams are pretty subjective, so it’s hard to say what someone else might experience. I recently described the work as a cosmic, psychedelic melodrama, but ask me six months from now and you might get a different answer.”

Help keep the City Paper free.

No paywalls.
No newspaper subscription cost.
Free delivery at 800 locations from downtown to North Charleston to Johns Island to Summerville to Mount Pleasant.

Help support independent journalism by donating today.