kozyndan
Install Theme
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“Minka-Ski Space”

Edition: 50 prints, signed and numbered
Fine Art Matte Paper
41 x 65 cm (16 x 26 inch) paper size with a 33.4 x 57 cm (13 x 22.4 inch) image area.
$150US

This print is of our most recent kakejiku nihonga painting and was inspired by the old wood timber frame joinery in our 140 year old farmhouse in the Japanese countryside, as well our young cats, who figured out they could ascend the columns like a tree trunk and have a whole new world to explore in the rafters over our heads. Like many of our cat paintings, almost all the cats are ours, or our friends’ cats. The cats are not, however, existing in one dimension, but we seem to be seeing multiple dimensions of cats and joinery in the same moment. It may seem to make sense to our perception and then not and back again - they appear to have their own kind of logic!

(Check out the process of making the original painting HERE)

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https://nahcotta.com/collections/kozy-kitchens/products/minty-kozy-kitchensALT
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Kozy has a new collection of her bunny primitive sculptures on view now Nahcotta in New Hampshire. All 55 sculptures available for purchase NOW exclusively through their online store, so go have a look! So many cute ones to choose from (and Nahcotta lists each character’s story on their listing) - they make perfect gifts for the Holiday Season!

Check them out!

"Ko-Minka-ski Space" nihonga scroll painting of cats on Escher-esque Japanese wood joineryALT
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“Minka-ski Space”
30x51cm painting (42.5 x133cm scroll)
nihonga paint on washi paper, fabric scroll
2024

Edit: SOLD

Our first kakejiku in over 3 years, this traditional nihonga (Japanese mineral pigment paint) artwork was inspired by the old joinery in our 140 year old farmhouse in the Japanese countryside, and our young cats who figured out they could ascend the columns like a tree trunk and have a whole new world to explore in the rafters over our heads. Like many of our cat paintings, almost all the cats are ours, or friends’ cats. The cats are not, however, existing in one dimension, but we seem to be seeing multiple dimensions of cats and joinery in the same moment and thus it may seem to make sense to our perception and then lose sense and back again - they seem to have their own kind of logic.

Kozy painted this artwork using the very traditional medium of Japanese painting - crushing minerals into a fine powder herself and mixing them into warmed hide glue to make each color, repeatedly re-warming the mixture to keep it at the correct temperature necessary to paint it onto the handmade washi paper.

Once the painting was finished, we took it to a father and son scroll making team in the mountains of Minobu, Yamanashi, where we selected the elements of fabric they would use to build the scroll around the painting (one might assume a painting is attached to the front of a scroll, but in fact the fabric elements are cut and glued to fit around the painting instead).

We have sent this painting off to Outré Gallery in Melbourne, Australia for their 2024 Vanguard group exhibition, which is on view September 6 - 29, 2024.

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“The Munchies”
12 x 12 inches (30x30cm)
acrylic gouache on board
2024

Edit: This painting is now SOLD (we do have prints available though!)

This painting is a companion piece to “Strength In Numbers” painting we did last year for the year of the rabbit. Dan is thinking of this as perhaps a twelve year cycle, one painting per year, in which the new year’s animal is somehow overtaking the previous year. For the year of the dragon it seems a bit lopsided - a dragon could easily take out a rabbit (except maybe that one killer rabbit rom Monty Python and the Holy Grail - hah!), so he wanted to make it a bit lighthearted while still having a dragon devour bunnies. The previous painting had bunnies made of snow, so it made good sense to have cloud bunnies this time around. It feels like the dragon is enjoying some nice cotton candy, or slurping down some chewy boba and quite enjoying it!

We originally created this image to celebrate the Lunar New Year for the Year of the Dragon back in January, but kozy was quite busy preparing for a ceramics exhibition and didn’t get to finish this painted version of dan’s dragon illustration until July! She had a lot of fun with it though - she is a bit obsessed with this little USB mini airbrush she bought - she has never used one until last year, but kind of loves how different the effect is with acrylic gouache (her medium of choice for the last 20 years) than her usual brush technique.

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Usually we are only making paintings specifically for some exhibition we have committed to, but this painting we just made to continue this cycle of paintings we have envisioned, so this painting is actually available at the moment. If you are interested, please email us!

We have also released an archival print of this artwork - check it out in our web shop!

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“Life Is Puzzling”

Offset Poster Print on 80lb Cover Stock, 30 x 10 inches (768x251mm), Signed

We are all just pieces in this infinite piece puzzle of the grand Universe!

We were recently reprinting some of our long-running popular posters and our printer here in Yamanashi said their was extra space on the large sheets they were using for the print job we decided to make use of it to make some new posters, including this one. This Panoramic artwork is based on a Paris street corner.

We originally created this artwork for a jigsaw puzzle released by German puzzle company, but it is long since sold out, so we decided to release it as a poster for the first time more than 16 years after we first drew and colored this unusual edition to our Panoramic series.

Available now! Purchase one HERE!

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Kozy really likes this particular handmade washi paper she finds in her hometown, where paper has been made for nearly 1000 years. Each one with different pools of pastel color, and speckled with gold flecks that shimmer in the light.

After a long stretch this year of being focused on things besides painting (ceramics, ceramics exhibitions, learning to adult in Japan, farming, trying to figure out how to transition our business to being technically based here in Japan, etc), she set down to get back into painting mode to create some artworks for an exhibition at Giant Robot’s GR2 Gallery in Los Angeles called “Circles” that is on view now (and pretty great actually! So many talented artists, as is the norm for Giant Robot shows).

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She based the paintings on a drawing of a massive school of #bunnyfish Dan made many years ago (it reminded us of our days living in a little 2 bedroom apartment in Santa Monica, CA😌 the waves of nostalgia when revisiting old artworks is intense!).

If you can’t get to the show in person, the artworks are available here:

GR2: Circles - Group Exhibition

Check it out!

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Kozy’s new exhibition of her bunny primitive ceramics is opening TONIGHT, May 6th, 2023 at Nucleus Portland in Portland, OR, USA! “Out of the Ashes” presents 90 new handmade ceramic sculptures, fired in the traditional wood fired kilns in the countryside near our home in Yamanashi, Japan. 

Kozy has been creating these small character figures for a decade now.  Each figure acts as a personal idol or totem of sorts, imbued by kozy and dan with its own name and story, that reflect our own world and lives.  If you come to see the exhibition and read their stories - one of them may call out to you for one reason or another!

The opening runs from 4-6PM at Nucleus Portland on Alberta (in the Alberta Arts district, 2916 NE Alberta St #BPortland, OR 97211) on May 6th and kozy (and dan) will be in attendance - so if you are in the area, come down and say “Hi!” 

The exhibition runs till May 28th. 

For those who are far far from Portland, sculptures are available for purchase online here:  https://nucleusportland.com/collections/kozy2023

We have made an extremely limited (between 12 and 20 prints, depending on the image) edition of signed and numbered prints on handmade washi paper for each of our Magic the Gathering Secret Lair card artworks. 

https://shop.kozyndan.com/collections/magic-the-gathering-art

 Since all 10 of our card artworks were loosely based on Japanese ukiyo-e (traditional woodblock prints), with lots of nods to our home here and to Yamanashi (where we live and where kozy was born and raised), we thought it would be nice to have the artworks printed on traditionally made washi paper by a small company based here in Yamanashi (in the area where kozy grew up, which has been known for hundreds of years a paper making region in Japan).

There are a lot of images in this series, so we made a whole new collection in our web store for them (this is where we will also eventually be selling the AP cards that we have will draw/ paint on) - Have a look!

https://shop.kozyndan.com/collections/magic-the-gathering-art

Some of you have noticed this already, but this week we slipped the second, LARGER size edition of the “California Bunnywave” print into our web store.  You now can choose between a large, 25 inch (65cm), signed and numbered archival edition of 123 prints, or the REGULAR size (close to the actual painting) 13 inch (33cm). They are both BEAUTIFUL, so just choose based on your budget and the size that best suits your walls!

LARGE “Mavericks” limited edition

REGULAR size open edition

The print is made from our recent painting that was sold at Giant Robot’s Lunar New Year exhibition in January, 2023 to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. In fact 2023 is the year of the WATER rabbit to be more specific, AND 2023 marks 20 years since we created our original “Uprisings” bunny wave artwork for the cover of Giant Robot Issue 28 in March of 2003, so it felt like the time to make another one finally!

“Strength In Numbers (Bunny Avalanche)”
12 x 12 inches
acrylic gouache on board
2023

UPDATE: SOLD!

Kozy - We sent this painting off to be in an exhibition at COREY HELFORD GALLERY in Los Angeles. 

Bunnies have been a recurring character in our artwork since the very first year of our career working together.  Dan sketched up this illustration in December as the year of the Tiger (2022) was drawing to a close, and the year of the Rabbit (2023) was about to begin so as to commemorate this new lunar year, as well as “celebrate the power of cooperation to overcome daunting odds!” (Those are his words, I think he just wanted to draw more rabbits for all you @kozyndan rabbit fans out there!). 

This work was made using the same process as the “California Bunnywave” - Dan drew the lines and colored it just how he imagined the final art to look in Procreate and then printed that illustration for me to trace the basic lines onto a 12 x 12 inch cradled board and then paint with acrylic gouache. I got use my new toy, a little USB chargeable airbrush, again for this painting. This is now my second time using an airbrush and its been fun to explore the new tool as I used it to make the snow in this painting. I tried to stick close to what Dan imagined and just got lost in the process - figuring our how to make the snow, and then all the brush painted lifework afterwards. Its actually a quite meditative process for me - and I find myself listening to a lot of meditative sort of podcasts and music while I do this kind of painting process. It was a lovely way to finish out the year! The “Art Collector Starter Kit” exhibition opened January 28th, 2023.Happy new Year to Everyone!!! 

We are so grateful for your support!