Koooooos is an artist, designer and and one half of the renowned South African design studio Jana+Koos. His work ranges from illustration and painting to photography and sculpture. In 2017 He got kicked off instagram for his drawing show ‘Toilet Art’. In 2018, he launched his first solo show photography show, Palindroom. Most recently he initiated the collaborative portrait project, #coronacommission in aid of Covid 19 charities.

A voyeur of the human character as it evolves with the times, and what about our nature remains the same. It’s most often that this evidence can be found behind closed doors. He seeks the awkward, unresolved side of nudity, sex and self representation. His lens is curious, sometimes polite but mostly a question of what is and is not exposed, and where that exposure begins and ends. His work is an investigation, so to speak, into the we frequent the blurred lines of privacy. In some instances, he accesses these moments through the nude-selfies, sexts, which flaunt our desire for agency in capturing ourselves naked, posed. It’s a question of representation, re-representation and then, re-re-representation. His work is to summon the psychology of privacy and the gentle grotesque nature of our bodies as we work to capture them. And as a result it becomes about the gaze, the dynamics of the body and how we use power – whether it’s nudity or not. It’s about seeing ourselves on a screen, naked, exposed, only to arrive at the unexpected result, “oh damn, I do have a good ass”. A little less self loathing and a little more skin happens here. It’s about that toilet selfie, or the stolen glance at yourself in the cubicle mirror as you’re pulling your pants back up. It’s full frontal, it’s fetishes, it’s flesh, it’s fear, it’s fantasy.

For more info visit: koosart.co.za & janaandkoos.studio