Kozo opened Permanent Impermanence on 15 May at Free Parking, 16 Morton Street in New York’s West Village oil paintings, mixed media and a hand-painted 1965 Ford Mustang Coupe at the centre of it all. Across its surface, Kozo has recreated an epic François Lemoyne’s The Apotheosis of Hercules the vast ceiling painting that crowns the Salon d’Hercule at Versailles, 500 hours of work using the car as a canvas. The detail carries through to the vintage leather seats, tattooed by hand, with subtle motifs of workers uncovering the image beneath the surface.
Originally trained as a tattoo artist working in coloured micro-realism, Kozo works with lithographic stencils, tattoo ink, graphite, acrylic and embedded tattoo needles across a series of works that sit between fine art, ritual and process. The exhibition’s core is the immigrant experience, having moved to New York to pursue his practice, Kozo places his signature miniature worker figures into scenes of relentless effort, exploring what labour leaves behind in objects long after its completion. Recurring phrases across the works “I was created to create” and “The only way out is through” - function as personal mantras. “To me, these sculptures are for life. They’re bigger than life. They’re here forever.”
See Link
Inspiration by Mark