Brian Kokoska. Poison IV

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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Lil Mama Bad As Hell, 2015
oil on canvas, 24 x 20 x 1 3/16 inches / 61 x 51 x 3 cm
© photo : Sylvie Chan-Liat / Courtesy of the artist and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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Kevin Got Cut (Stitch Swamp), 2015
oil on canvas, 72 x 58 x 1 3/16 inches / 183 x 147,3 x 3 cm
© photo : Sylvie Chan-Liat / Courtesy of the artist and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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Pajama Party (It’s Not A Sleepover Till Somebody Dies), 2015
inflatable body parts, vintage stuffed animal, cable ties
© photo : Sylvie Chan-Liat / Courtesy of the artist and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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Untitled (The Bouncers Call Her Sweetheart), 2015
inflatable body parts, vintage stuffed animal, cable ties, 43 x 42 1/2 inches / 110 x 107 cm
© photo : Sylvie Chan-Liat / Courtesy of the artist and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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Young Family (RIP), 2015
inflatable body parts, vintage stuffed animals, cable ties, 40 x 33 inches / 102 x 84 cm
© photo : Sylvie Chan-Liat / Courtesy of the artist and Valentin, Paris

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Felix (Domino Death), 2015
oil on canvas, 72 x 58 x 1 3/16 inches / 183 x 147,3 x 3 cm
© photo : Sylvie Chan-Liat / Courtesy of the artist and Valentin, Paris

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BRIAN KOKOSKA, Poison IV
exhibition view at Valentin, Paris, France, 2015.
© photo : Sylvie Shan-Liat / Courtesy of the artists and Valentin, Paris

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Speedball Stephanie (Dancing With The Scars),2015
oil on canvas, 72 x 58 x 13/16 inches / 183 x 147,3 x 3 cm
© photo : Sylvie Chan-Liat / Courtesy of the artist and Valentin, Paris

Poison IV is the new solo exhibition by Canadian artist BRIAN KOKOSKA that opened last week at Valentin in Paris. Like his previous works, KOKOSKA has transformed the gallery space into a monochromatic environment capturing the visitors in an arresting, immersive yet dark fantasy.

Aesthetically seductive, overwhelming and playful thanks to the titles and the bold colors, this new body of work features a series of paintings as well as several sculptures and assemblages made of found items. The walls, the floor and the ceiling have been covered with a spectrum of moist green, the same tone used for the paintings, creating the feeling that their content has spilled over the canvases and into the room, while the dark shapes of the sculptural works haunt the exhibition space at once comically and repulsively, factually and abstractly.

Thanks to a simple symbolic lexicon, a reduced vocabulary, our ‘natural’ inclination to anthropomorphize things and thus an insufferable familiarity, BRIAN KOKOSKA‘s work, according to the press release, ‘draws its efficiency from its ability to imitate the breakdown of the identification process, to dismantle the attributes of the personality while at the same time redistributing them.’

I get obsessed with particular colors and then it becomes this restriction in my head that I find nice to work with. Like, putting together a show in shades of one color (or perhaps a second color, black), it feels very rewarding in some weird way. It is similar to stage design or something.. where I would imagine you get a strange thrill of creating an environment that can psychologically affect an audience. – BRIAN KOKOSKA for pasunautre.com, September 2015

Poison IV by BRIAN KOKOSKA is on view at Valentin, Paris until October 10, 2015.

 



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