Frank Kozik

"My whole thing is being somewhat opposed to the fine art world and being basically from the street." Outsider art has never looked so good. Frank Kozik, a poster artist of a different order, has managed to take hold of American popular culture and turn it around into a new dialectic—a conversation between good and evil. His rock posters are packed with this contradiction between images—sometimes bright, engaging, and aesthetically pleasing, and othertimes dark, standoffish, and piercing to the eye.

Frank Kozik grew up in Spain, where he dreamed of becoming a scientist, perhaps an astronaut. When he immigrated to the United States in 1976 his life began to change. He dropped out of school and later, in an attempt to turn things around, he joined the military. He wound up in Austin, Texas, where he discovered punk rock and its engaging culture.

Working as a doorman at a nightclub in Austin, he began producing posters for the featured bands. An article about his work in the Austin Chronicle helped him land a job at a large T-shirt shop where he gained technical knowledge of printing processes. "After a year spent doing less than 'cool' designs I took my new found technical knowledge and hit the streets, freelance," states Kozik. He has been creating rock posters ever since.

Therese Thau Heyman Posters American Style (New York and Washington, D.C.: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., in association with the National Museum of American Art, 1998)