Kozo is a New York-based contemporary artist working across painting, sculpture, and tattooing. His practice brings classical art history into direct dialogue with contemporary visual culture, exploring themes of permanence, transformation, and the innate human desire to leave a mark.

At the core of his visual language, human figures interact with monumental classical paintings, sculptures, and historical icons. Confronted by immense cultural legacy, these figures explore, inhabit, and intervene within classical forms—transforming static masterworks into active narratives. These subversions introduce curiosity and wit, examining our relationship with the past and how artistic lineage is preserved, reclaimed, and disrupted.

Rooted in the razor-sharp precision of his background in tattooing and informed by classical oil and sculptural traditions, Kozo moves fluidly between reverence and disruption. His multidisciplinary practice reflects a sustained inquiry into the tension between impermanence and indelible legacy.

Kozo’s work has been exhibited internationally and extends beyond traditional institutions through large-scale installations and notable collaborations, including Maison Margiela, The Peninsula London, and Ford Mustang.