Paul Kos

Born -

Paul Kos has been an artist and teacher for 35 years. He responds to simple, humble materials and the indigenous elements of specific sites, which he mines for their physical properties and metaphoric possibilities. Everything Matters, a traveling retrospective of his work, was organized by the University of California Berkeley Art Museum in 2003. Kos's installations and videos have also been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; New Langton Arts, San Francisco; Capp Street Project, San Francisco; Leo Castelli Gallery, New York; M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco. 

The Spanish "aqui, aca, alli, alla", meaning "right here, here, there, over there," describes his work. Here, there, everywhere. Rather than having a signature or trademark, his work is linked conceptually. The concepts are often generated by life style events. For example, in jest, the author of a survival book on fire making said, as a last resort, if no matches, use a magnifying lens, if no lens, make one out of ice. So, Paul Kos did!

When Super Bowl Sunday's halftime commercials started influencing his video students with their 1,000 edits a minute pace, Kos stacked 27 video monitors, 9 high and 3 wide, to comprise a contemplative, architectural, 27 channel, stained glass window, CHARTRES BLEU, with no edits and time slowed down.

Kos opts for, but never expects, partly cloudy becoming mostly sunny.

Artist Collection List

Title Year Runtime Collection
2x2 1997 4 minutes 43 seconds Single Titles
A Trophy/Atrophy 1972 3 minutes 13 seconds Early Video Art, Single Titles
Basho 2007 4 minutes 12 seconds Single Titles
Brieftauben 1987 3 minutes 2 seconds Single Titles
Can't Get It Right No Matter Where I Go: A Duet in Light and Dark 2005 5 minutes 25 seconds Single Titles
Coal Train in 2/4 Time 1996 4 minutes 47 seconds Single Titles
Flørli I 2007 3 minutes 19 seconds Single Titles
Flørli IV 2007 2 minutes 19 seconds Single Titles
Gargoyle V 1985 1 minute 10 seconds Single Titles
Gargoyle VIII 1985 2 minutes 45 seconds Single Titles
Hand Trap 1970 22 seconds Single Titles
Ice Makes Fire 1974 2 minutes 53 seconds Single Titles
International Bed and Breakfast 1992 2 minutes Single Titles
La Vache! 1996 2 minutes 41 seconds Single Titles
Lightning 1976 1 minute 23 seconds Early Video Art, Single Titles
Pilot Butte/Pilot Light 1974 6 minutes 37 seconds Single Titles
Pit and the Pendulum 1971 12 minutes 22 seconds Single Titles
Ramp 1980 2 minutes 7 seconds Single Titles
Reflection 1998 11 minutes 11 seconds Single Titles
rEVOLUTION: Notes for the Invasion: mar mar march 1972 2 minutes 10 seconds Single Titles
Riley, Roily, River 1975 1 minute 30 seconds Early Video Art, Single Titles
Search Olga Gold 1973 6 minutes Early Video Art, Single Titles
Sirens 1977 6 minutes 47 seconds Early Video Art, Single Titles
Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S. 1968-1980 1995 16 hours 26 minutes Box Sets, Curated Compilations
Surveying the First Decade: Volume 1 1995 7 hours 25 minutes 25 seconds Box Sets, Curated Compilations
Symmetry 2016 1 minute 36 seconds Single Titles
Sympathetic Vibrations 1986 4 minutes 10 seconds Single Titles
Sympathetic Vibrations: The Videoworks of Paul Kos 2016 1 hour 7 minutes Box Sets, Single Artist Compilations
The Electric Mirror: Reflecting on Video Art in the 1970s 2017 Compilations, Curated Compilations
Tower of Babel 1987 14 minutes 10 seconds Single Titles
VDB TV: Decades 2017 7 hours 47 minutes 37 seconds Box Sets, Compilations, Curated Compilations
Warlock(ing) 1971 7 minutes 30 seconds Early Video Art, Single Titles