"While some formal elements of abstraction and modernism are evoked in Kukwits' painting, there is also an underlying fascination with language. In the recurrence of patterns and motifs, Kukwits' is interested in the syntax of visual signifiers (glyphs) and how meaning communicates beyond the verbal. Much of his practice forms part of a broader exploration of a vocabulary focused on gesture and form rather than direct language." - Ceremonial / Art
Gigaemi Kukwits lives and works in Vancouver, BC and is of Coast Salish (Squamish Nations) and Kwakwaka'wakw heritage. His chiefly name was appointed in a cedar bark ceremony by his uncle Simon Baker and derives from his grandparents of the Musgamakw Dzawada'Enuxw First Nations. At a young age, Kukwits' trained under artists Douglas Cranmer, Mungo Martin and Mathias Joe. In 1966 he spent several months in Europe, stopping in London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Munich, where he visited the Tate, the Louvre, and Rijksmuseum and made new works that he sold along the way. Upon his return he studied at the Vancouver school of Art (Emily Carr University of Art + Design).
