Kaz OSHIRO

APRIL - MAY 2008

Kaz Oshiro réalise des reproductions en trompe l’œil d’objets usuels, qui sont en fait despeintures tridimensionnelles en acrylique sur toile. Les amplis utilisés en musique, les réfrigérateurs, les machines à laver et à sécher forment les humbles sujets de son travail.Hybrides, ils brouillent la frontière entre peinture et sculpture. Avec une attention plus que marquée pour le détail et un intérêt pour la vie quotidienne, lespièces défient les conventions de la représentation et nous demandent de porter attention comme de nous méfier de ce que nous voyons. À une époque saturée d’appropriation, lesœuvres d’Oshiro se réfèrent au Pop Art, à l’art minimal et conceptuel sans tomber dans la servitude à ces courants. Oshiro dit essayer « [espérer] créer des formes post-Pop Art(peinture) qui juxtaposent Pop et Minimalisme au mouvement Néo-Geo, à l'Appropriationisme et au Photoréalisme, et les présenter comme une nature morte de ma génération. » Ces objetssont plus que de l’art sur l'art: les autocollants punk-rock et tout l’attirail de la culture populaire révèlent la lecture précise et juste que fait Kaz Oshiro de la haute et de la basse cultureaméricaine.

Kaz Oshiro meticulously crafts trompe l’oeil replicas of common objects that are in fact three-dimensional paintings made using canvas, stretchers, bondo and acrylic paint. Music amplifiers, dorm-room fridges, double-stack washer/dryers and scuffed credenzas form thehumble subjects of his oeuvre. As hybrids, they blur the boundary between painting and sculpture.With their fanatical attention to detail and focus on everyday life they challenge the conventions of representation and ask us to look closer and distrust what we see and take for grantedaround us all day long. As appropriations in an age saturated with appropriations, they effortlessly reference pop art, minimalism, conceptual and finish fetish art – without beingdominated by them. Oshiro says that he « hopes to create Post-Pop Art (painting) that juxtaposes Pop and Minimalism with the flavor of Neo-Geo, appropriation, and Photorealism,and present them as a still life of my generation. » But the objects are well more than art about art. Punk-rock stickers and other sub-culture paraphernalia reveal the Japanese born Oshiro tobe an astute reader of American culture both high and low.

	Born in 1967 in Okinawa, Japan. Lives and works in Los Angeles, USA.
	Education
2002	M.F.A., California State University, Los Angeles
1998	B.A., California State University, Los Angeles
	Solo Exhibitions
2008	« Sorry we’re Closed », Brussels, Belgium
2007	Common Noise, galerie frank elbaz, Paris, France Room Acoustics, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan Paintings and Works on Paper, 1999-2006, Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, USA New Works, Project Room, Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York, USA
2006	Driving with Dementia, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA Subpar, Steven Wolf Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
2005	Pomona College Museum of Art, Project Series, Claremont, CA, USA Drone, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, USA Room Acoustics, Tokyo Hipsters Club, Inart Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2004	Out-n-In, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
2002	Pet Sounds, Vol. 13: No Sound, More Alchemy, California State University, Los Angeles Pop Tatari (Curse of Pop Music), Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
	Group Exhibitions (selection)
2007	If Everybody Had An Ocean: Brian Wilson, Tate St. Ives, UK Beneath the Underdog, Gagosian Gallery New York, NY, USA Forged Realities, Universal Studios, Beijing, China One Way or Another : Asian American Art Now, Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, USA
2006	Red Eye: Rubell Collection, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, FL, USA One Way or Another : Asian American Art Now, Asia Society and Museum, New York, USA Smoke and Mirrors: Deception in Contemporary Art, University of Alabama, Birmingham, USABanquet : A Feast for the Senses, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA, USA Deaf « from the Audible to the Visible », galerie frank elbaz, Paris, France Tina B, Praha, Tcheck Republic, Curator : Pascal Beausse
2005	Thing: New Sculpture from Los Angeles, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA Re-form, Northern Illinois University Art Gallery, Chicago, USA
2004	Rock, Mark Moore Gallery, Los Angeles, USAGiggles, Angstrom Gallery, Dallas, USA Nothing Compared to This, Contemporary Art Center Cincinnati, Cincinnati, USA 2004 California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, USA Boundary Creatures, Kansas City Jewish Museum, Kansas City, USA. Curator : JamesBrinsfield January 13-February 28, 2004 Swiss Institute, New York, USA
2003	2003 Summer Program, Apex Art, New York. Curators : Mitchell Algus, Michelle Maccarone Group Show, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, USA Redux, Luckman Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles, USA
2002	Group Show, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
2001	A Proper Aesthetics of the War, Gallery Zero One, Los Angeles, USA Lazy Susan, Long Beach City College Fine Arts Gallery, Long Beach, USA I'm in This Show, Fifty Bucks Gallery, Los Angeles, USA LA, CA, Newspace, Los Angeles, USA

Kaz OSHIRO

Kaz OSHIRO

Education

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions (selection)