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KOZYNDAN

PEOPLEText: Lotje Sodderland

They’re young, they’re hot, they’re crazy in love and they’re grossly talented – verily, one might say they’re enough to make one nauseous. Since the start of their creative and romantic liaison in the late 90s, the irresistible surrealism of Kozyndan‘s world has effortlessly bridged the fine art and commercial realms, racking up an enviable list of exhibitions and commercial giant-clients along the way.

Kozyndan
© Sean Marc Lee

Widely acclaimed for their detailed hyper-real panoramas, Kozyndan’s distinctive digital paintings depict the human and technological overload that characterize everyday modern life. An absurd universe that is all their own plays host to a startling array of surreal characters, seducing viewers into their parallel dimension – where Japanese businessmen share bar-space with grizzly bears, cuddly bunny-fish hybrids skim the air, and giant pink rabbits watch as gargantuan robots do battle on the River Tyne.

Beneath the Surface” brings them to Holland for the first time, celebrating the launch of Maxalot‘s new Amsterdam venue.

Kozyndan
Little Crunches of Tiny Feet

Could you tell us about yourself including your background?

Dan: I grew up Orange County, California. Studied illustration, though not very well, at Cal State University Fullerton. That is where Kozy and I met, in painting class.
Kozy: I grew up in Yamanashi, by Mt. Fuji, Japan till 18, and moved to California to study art at Cal State Fullerton

Kozyndan
Pacific Drift, for the “Beneath the Surface” exhibition

Could you tell us about your recent projects that have got you excited?

Kozy: Last year we spent a lot of time doing paintings for various shows, so this year we wanted to get back to the computer and do some Photoshop painting, and particularly get back to our ongoing series of Panoramic images. The first work we ever did together was a panoramic of our living room, and we have been expanding the series ever since. We hope to someday put out a nice, wide book of all these images. For our show opening on May 29th at Maxalot Gallery in Amsterdam, we will be debuting our first full size panoramic image that we’ve released since 2006. They will be displaying it quite large, perhaps the largest any of our panoramics has ever been displayed (this is the image on the cover of Shift). We are grateful for that as it took us over 2 months to complete. We spent about 5 weeks tediously painting coral in Photoshop, so its nice that people will get to see the image large enough to see all the work we put into it.

Dan: We have also completed a second, completely different image from the same coral reef for a show at Vallery in Barcelona that will open June 19th. Beyond shows, we are also working on product related stuff including a clothing line with PUMA that has just begun to hit Footlockers stores in Europe this spring. We are also working on toys that should be out in the Fall or sooner. We’ve made two different toys based on a character we have been using in our work the last few years called “Bunnyfish”. The character is, as the name implies part bunny and past fish. We are doing a crocheted version that we are distributing ourselves, and traditional plastic minifigure is being released by Upperplayground as part of their “Get Small” series of artist toys. We are also working on a book about the Bunnyfish, though I don’t know when exactly we’ll finish it.

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