KAJ Gallery is a joint venture by longtime friends Jason Taylor and Kosmas Ballis. Jason is an accomplished plastic surgeon of 18 years with a degree in Medicine from University of Pennsylvania, and is currently based in Los Angeles, California. Jason specializes in reconstructive cleft palate surgery for children. Kosmas attended The Kansas City Art Institute and holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Florida State University. He recently won the Gold Prize for ceramics at the 2016 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, which allowed him to spend 9 months working with various museums throughout Asia.
KAJ Gallery might just be 40 years in the making, which happens to coincide with the length of Kosmas and Jason’s lifelong friendship. In many ways this gallery was meant to be. It was around 2017 when the 2 decided it was time to do an interesting collaboration. That collaboration officially began around March 2018 with a ‘mask’ project called ‘Kosmask’ (which can be viewed at Kosmask.com). This was their first foray into the fine arts market as a team and what got the ball rolling. With the success of Kosmask in a major Atlanta show in July 2018, the two made the decision to proceed with plans to open an art gallery.
Our focus now is to bring some of the finest contemporary artwork to Naples. Though we’re opening the gallery with a world famous painter, KAJ Gallery will have a strong emphasis on some of the finest contemporary ceramic artists of today.