Kukula 'Cake Room' Print Available
Artist: Kukula
Title: Cake Room
Medium: Giclee Print
Size: 15 x 20 Inches
Edition: 50
Price: $450
Kukula, whose given name is
Nataly Abramovitch
, is an Israeli painter celebrated for a self coined style she calls Pop Rococo. Born in 1980 and raised in a quiet village an hour north of Tel Aviv, she grew up surrounded by Holocaust survivors whose stories of trauma mixed with her own childhood fantasies of princesses and ballet. This collision of horror and sweetness became the emotional engine of her art. She earned a degree in illustration from Vital-Shenkar in 2003 and soon relocated to the United States, where she now lives and works.
Her oil paintings centre on doll-like female figures posed with the haughty grace of eighteenth-century aristocratic portraits. Rendered in intricate layers of luminous colour, these heroines confront the viewer with direct, wide-eyed gazes while surrounded by gilded filigree, lollipops, songbirds and baroque ribbons that sometimes morph into their own skin. The ornate flourishes reference French Limoges porcelain and the decorative excess of Rococo masters such as Boucher and Fragonard, yet the flattened planes, candy palettes and subtle nods to manga give the work a contemporary pop edge.
Kukula’s creative process is intuitive. She gathers visual stimuli from haute couture runways, vintage opera costumes and independent women designers, then blends them with personal memories and symbols of feminine power. Each accessory carries possible meaning: a pearl choker may suggest innocence, while a lurking cat could hint at hidden danger. By presenting these icons within idyllic, dreamlike landscapes, she invites viewers to lose themselves in a world where beauty and melancholy, innocence and eroticism coexist in delicate balance.
Her work has appeared in solo shows from Rome to Los Angeles, and luxury labels including RED Valentino have commissioned capsule lines featuring her signature characters. Through every painting, Kukula offers an enchanted universe that resurrects the lightness of Rococo while telling modern stories of strength, identity and resilience.
