Sunday, November 8, 2009

Artist Zbyszek Koziol has owned a gallery in Key West on and off for the past 13 years. His former gallery was a popular stopping place on Upper Duval for visitors who returned year after year to add to their collections.

The problem was, no one could pronounce the name of the gallery, which was named after the Polish native. (It's pronounced SPEE-shack.)

So he and artist wife Tippi this week reopened the gallery in a new Petronia Street location with a new, easier to say and spell name they hope will give them a fresh start.

The new Goat House Gallery technically is still named for Zbyszek, whose name in Polish means "goat."

Tippi's bright, cartoonlike paintings and Zbyszek's surreal-abstract pieces cover nearly every inch of wall space in the quaint space -- enveloping the visitor in vibrant colors as soon as they step through the door onto the Mexican-tile floor.

Goat House Gallery features only the works of the Koziols, and Zbyszek seems to delight in explaining that he is the artist when people wander into the gallery to examine and ask questions about the paintings.

"Art is a very self-centered thing. I need to share it with people," he said. Zbyszek paints to amuse himself, he said, but he's always interested if people see what he sees in the finished product. It's that feedback and discussion that "feeds his engine."

The Koziols' styles are distinctly different, with most of Tippi's works comprising whimsical characters -- "Sweet Lips" the lipstick-wearing fish, "Cayman Rick" the sea turtle and "Six Toes" the cat -- in cheerful, Key West-inspired locales. The characters were even made into a 27-minute animated film called "Piano Dog Visits the Underworld."

She also has a series of paintings and items with the "Walking Heart" character. In Polish, someone who is trustful is said to be a chodzace serce, or a walking heart.

Zbyszek, on the other hand, said he paints expressions and moods, rather than designs or pretty things that look good hanging on the wall. He and Tippi playfully argue over whether his style has changed over the years.

"I don't think anybody's art changes; it maybe goes in different directions," he said.

Although his work has been described as surrealist-abstract, he said he prefers to just call it Zbyszek-ism. Over the years, he's found inspiration from his travels, including the art of traditional African and Aboriginal cultures.

The gallery offers works at various prices, including prints and small items for less than $50.

Goat House Gallery also now doubles as a studio space for Zbyszek, who admitted with a laugh that he has no more room at his home to create and store any more of his works. He estimated he's painted more than 3,000 pieces in addition to Tippi's works.

"I cannot sit at home and do nothing," he said.

That's most of the reason why the Koziols decided to reopen a gallery after the two-year hiatus they took after closing Zbyszek Gallery for financial reasons.

"We worked a month and a half to pay for one month's rent," he said. "Only three months of the year was good.

"Nowadays it's very hard to make a living as an artist. People spend less money on art -- the economy is still rebuilding."

The husband and wife team said they are happy to be working side by side again, although Tippi also works at a local guesthouse to subsidize their income.

"We were always working as a team," Zbyszek said. "I don't care about money as long as we have enough to support our family."

The Koziols recently celebrated their 21st wedding anniversary. They met in New York City in the 1980s when Tippi was working as a window display designer and Zbyszek had designed and opened a blues and jazz club in Greenwich Village.

The pair decided to visit Key West on a whim the day after Fantasy Fest, not knowing anything about the festival that had taken place the night before.

"I said, 'This is even dirtier than New York,' " Tippi said of seeing all the trash, beer bottles and other Halloween debris in the street.

After a 10-day visit, they decided to make Key West their permanent home.

Their first gallery also was located on Petronia Street, less than half a block from their new location between Duval and Whitehead streets. Tippi remembers paying just $350 a month in rent in 1993.

Before Zbyszek made his way to New York, he had spent nearly 20 years traveling the globe -- "all because I wanted to see the world and travel," he said.

His homes over the years included London, Barcelona, Paris, India, Nepal, Thailand, Malaysia, Tunisia and Australia, among others.

The 63-year-old Zbyszek said he's had 32 careers in his lifetime, including working as a fisherman in Glasgow, Scotland, a stint as a fashion photographer and even working on a sheep farm near Perth, Australia. He also organized concert tours for jazz musician Miles Davis and many others.

The couple has left Key West for a few brief stints over the years, but they always return to the island.

"Key West, it's a magnet," Zbyszek said. "It's a different kind of life, a different outlook."

amswary@keysnews.com