113 - Joseph (Francois) Kozak (American, 1953-2025)

Joseph (Francois) Kozak (American, 1953-2025) Untitled (Perseus). Oil on canvas. Signed on the reverse, "Kozak" 23 3/4 x 23 3/4 in. (60.5 x 60.5 cm) Notes: The New Jersey-based artist Joseph "Francois" Kozak was known for his distinctive visual language that blended romanticism, gothic fantasy, vampiric lore, latent Catholic symbolism, and homoeroticism. Kozak populated his tableaus with Native American figures, eerie Victorian children, macabre dancing skeletons, and members of the seventeenth-century European aristocracy. In his more sexually explicit works, saintly figures, angels, and decadent libertines frequently emerge as subjects. Kozak regularly exhibited at the Leslie-Lohman Gallery and was included in the 2019 group retrospective Male Gaze: Life, Legend, Legacy which was held in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. Following his death, his work was honored in the posthumous one-man show titled Saints and Sinners at the Outer Hall Gallery in Leighton, Pennsylvania. Kozak's work entered the collections of prominent private collectors, including gothic novelist Anne Rice and musician Marilyn Manson, and is now held in the permanent collection of the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art. Provenance Property of a Private New York Collection. Condition Nothing adverse to note. For further condition details or additional images, please contact info@vallots.com