Kristian Kozul was born in 1975, and raised in Zagreb, Croatia, where he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb. He then continued his studies in Germany under Janis Kounellis. Kozul now resides in New York. Inspired by European and American folk culture and art, Kozul transforms banal objects into outrageous pseudo-relics using obsessively crafted ornament, often seemingly at odds with the object’s original function.

Says Kozul: The mechanical bull is a machine that has a very particular evolution from a symbol of a literal ‘taming of the beast’ to its entry into pop culture, most notably in the film “Urban Cowboy”, which established it as a symbol with multi layered references toward the culture and mentality which it came to represent. It was transformed into a very popular, sexually suggestive symbol - adding yet another dimension to its already crowded signifying capabilities.”


The other objects in the exhibition are a cowboy hat, saddle and pair of cowboy boots all covered in red, white, and blue sequins and inlaid with chrome spikes. Here again Kozul invokes popular iconography from the American West and American culture.

For Kozul these objects refer to another cultural character, the “daredevil,” personified by 1960's celebrity stuntman Evel Knievel who fused American iconography with the values he came to represent: a derring-do and willingness to ‘risk it all’ for personal gain. Kozul believes “he imbued opportunism with imaginary nobility; in him national identity and pride merge with the demands of the entertainment industry.”

The outrageousness of these new objects serves to question the underlying cultural and political assumptions associated with the originals.


For this exhibition, Kozul presents a carnival of glitz associated with the American West centered on a re-interpretation of a mechanical bull. The bull is transformed from a functional apparatus of entertainment (a machine for rodeo training as well as a staple of barroom machismo) into a magnificent and massive beast of loaded cultural iconography. Embellished with black sequins, chrome spikes, feathers and buckles, Kozul’s bull takes on an a sinister, lurid air—part S & M, part Vegas showgirl, part urban bling.





Goff + Rosenthal gallery is pleased to present an installation of new work by Croatian artist Kristian Kozul. This is his first solo exhibition in the United States.


November 3 – January 5, 2008