Saturday, June 24, 2006

kozyndan

"Metrohm-Peak Poster"

"Eureka"

"Uprisings"

kozyndan are a pair of artists out of L.A. who should be well-known to anyone who's ever read an issue of Giant Robot - "Uprisings", one of their most renowned pieces, was the cover of GR 28, and if there's a singular theme to their work, it would bean exploration of Asian pop culture. That and bunnies. And cute cartoon animals having sex.

I first discovered kozyndan's work while paying a visit to Blue C Sushi in the Fremont district of Seattle. They have at least two kozyndan prints on display there - "Uprisings", and "Portraits From The (Off) Center Of The Universe", a panoramic view of Fremont itself (as a side note, Blue C Sushi is probably the coolest sushi joint ever, and if you ever visit Seattle and don't take the opportunity to eat there, you've missed out.) They've also done cover art for two Postal Service EPs and a Japanese import-only Weezer EP, amongst other things.

Weird, wide-angle perspectives and an almost obscene attention to detail are kozyndan's forte. They're massively talented artists, but there's a slightly shaky, line-art quality to their work as well, which lends their paintings and sketches a moment-in-time, amateur-Polaroid quality. Most importantly, though, is that they obviously love what they do, and have immense fun just making art. Whenever I come across one of kozyndan's distinctive illustrations, I'm reminded of a quote by Neil Gaiman: "You mean I get to make stuff up and get paid for it too?"

kozyndan have a website and they also have a livejournal.