Zen And The Art Of Bunny Primitive
THE ARTISTIC MARRIAGE OF COLLABORATORS Kozyndan has been charming the contemporary art world with their quirky and surrealist pan-Asian take on pop art for some 15 years, achieving a fiercely loyal global fan base who follow the weed-fueled adventures of this cheeky universe of pandas, rabbits, whales and human guardians. Using a language of light-hearted, sex-and-drug puns, cross-cultural visual cues, hybrid aesthetic styles, and subversive cuteness, the husband-and-wife team paint, print, sculpt, and merch through an eclectic evolution that is both personal and creative, as well as material. The most recent and rather expectation-defying results will be on view at LA’s Gregorio Escalante Gallery this September.
Golden State, their first solo show since 2013, and the first in the US since 2011, encompasses a suite of new paintings and two very different large-scale ceramic sculpture installations, all based on recent experiences exploring the terrain—both geographical and internally personal—of their own identities. The subject matter includes signature, unique animal imagery, from rabbits to wolves, chickens, tigers, and goats, lovingly familiar to their fans, as well as more abstract and esoteric references from Buddhism and nature. A terrarium-like landscape will fill the entire downstairs, and many of the paintings are to be finished during a summer residency in Japan, to more authentically reflect an aesthetic of mediation and myth that has captured their heart. Juxtapoz sat down with Kozyndan in their LA studio to find out where this is all coming from. —Shana Nys Dambrot
Kozy: Some artists do one thing over and over for 15-20 years. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It’s a cubicle of the mind, and I don’t want to be that person. We’ve always tried to do something different every time we can.
This story is from the September 2017, n200 edition of JUXTAPOZ.
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This story is from the September 2017, n200 edition of JUXTAPOZ.
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