Kaz Oshiro - Galerie Frank Elbaz

Kaz Oshiro

Kaz Oshiro
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 Kaz Oshiro, Sorry We're Closed, Brussels, Belgium
Kaz Oshiro, Clear Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
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
Room Acoustics, Tokyo Hipsters Club, Inart Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2004 Out-n-In, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica
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
Group Exhibitions (selection)
2008 Call + response, MUDAM, a series of events hosted by artist Candice Breitz Luxembourg
One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now, Japanese American National Museum, Los
Angeles, USA, curated by Melissa Chiu, Karin Higa, and Susette S. Min
Less is less, more is more, that’s all, CAPC-Musée d’art contemporain, Bordeaux, France
Some Paintings, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, USA, curated by Doug Harvey
Specific Objects, Johann König Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2007 If Everybody Had An Ocean: Brian Wilson, Tate St. Ives, UK & CAPC-Musée d’art
contemporain, Bordeaux, France
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, USA
Banquet : A Feast for the Senses, Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA, USA
Deaf « from the Audible to the Visible », galerie frank elbaz, Paris
Tina B, Praha, Czech 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
Giggles, 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 : James
Brinsfield
January 13-February 28, 2004, Swiss Institute, New York
2003 2003 Summer Program, Apex Art, New York. Curators : Mitchell Algus, Michelle Maccarone
Group Show, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica
Redux, Luckman Gallery, California State University, Los Angeles
2002 Group Show, Rosamund Felsen Gallery, Santa Monica
2001 A Proper Aesthetics of the War, Gallery Zero One, Los Angeles
Lazy Susan, Long Beach City College Fine Arts Gallery, Long Beach, USA
I'm in This Show, Fifty Bucks Gallery, Los Angeles
LA, CA, Newspace, Los Angeles

Kaz Oshiro
Kaz Oshiro réalise des reproductions en trompe l’œil d’objets usuels, qui sont en fait des
peintures 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, les
pièces 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, les
œuvres 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 objets
sont 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 culture
américaine.
Kaz Oshiro meticulously crafts trompe l’oil replicas of common objects that are in fact threedimensional
paintings made using canvas, stretchers, bondo and acrylic paint. Music
amplifiers, dorm-room fridges, double-stack washer/dryers and scuffed credenzas form the
humble 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 granted
around us all day long. As appropriations in an age saturated with appropriations, they
effortlessly reference pop art, minimalism, conceptual and finish fetish art – without being
dominated 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 to
be an astute reader of American culture both high and low.

Kaz Oshiro
2007
Common Noise, exhibition view, galerie frank elbaz, Paris, France
Catalogue available

Kaz Oshiro
Wall Cabinet (Public Enemy)
2007
Acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas
51 x 77 x 25,5 cm / 20 x 30 1/3 x 10"
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Kitchen (Black Woodgrain)
2007
Acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas
Upper Cabine, 3 units, each : 76,2 x 38 x 30,5 cm / 30 x 15 x 12"
Lower Cabinet: 91,5 x 236,2 x 62,2 cm / 36 x 93 x 24 1/2"
Approximately : 236,2 x 236,2 x 62,2 cm / 93 x 93 x 24 1/2" installed
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Small Fridge
2007
Acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas.
62,2 x 47 x 50,8 cm / 24 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 20"
Unique piece
`

Kaz Oshiro
Microwave Oven (White #1)
2007
Acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas.
31,7 x 52,7 x 38 cm / 12 1/2 x 20 3/4 x 15"
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Trash bin #13
2007
Acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas.
50,8 x 101,6 x 50,8 cm / 20" x 40" x 20"
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Bumper #5
2007
Acrylic and bondo on stretched canvas
160 x 15,25 x 17,8 cm / 63 x 6 x 7"
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Exhibition views, Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York, USA, 2007

Kaz Oshiro
Tailgate (OYOT)
2007
Acrylic and bondo on canvas
135 x 45 x 2,5 cm, bottom edge 30 cm from wall / 53 x 17 7/8 x 1 3/4”, bottom edge 12” from wall
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Tailgate (OTA)
2006
Acrylic and bondo on canvas
135 x 45 x 2,5 cm, bottom edge 30 cm from wall / 53 x 17 7/8 x 1 3/4”, bottom edge 12” from wall
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Microwave Oven #3 (Dead Kennedys)
2006
Acrylic and bondo on canvas
50 x 29,5 x 32,5cm
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Fender Champ #3 (Maggots)
2006
Acrylic and bondo on canvas
41 x 43 x 18 cm
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Wall Cabinet #9 (Pink eagle)
2006
Acrylic on canvas
38 x 76 x 31 cm
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Cabinet #6
2005
Acrylic on canvas
38 x 115 x 30,5 cm
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Cabinet #4
2005
Acrylic on stretched canvas
77 x 101 x 22,5 cm / 30 1/8 x 39 3/4 x 8 7/8"
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Washer/Dryer #1
2005
Acrylic & bondo on stretched canvas, 2-part.
Dryer: 109,2 x 68,6 x 71,1 cm / 43 x 27 x 28";
Washer: 109,2 x 68,9 x 71,4 cm /
43 x 27 1/8 x 28 1/8"
Unique piece
Kaz Oshiro
Cabinet #5
2005
Acrylic on stretched canvas
38,1 x 115,24 x 30,5 cm / 15 x 45 3/8 x 12
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Cabinet #5
2005
Acrylic on stretched canvas
38,1 x 115,24 x 30,5 cm / 15 x 45 3/8 x 12"
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Kitchen Project
2004-2005
Acrylic on stretched canvas
L-shaped, left side: 215,9 x 405,15 x 65 cm / 85 x 159 1/2 x 25 5/8";
right side: 215,9 x 257,2 x 64,15 cm / 85 x 101 1/4 x 25 1/4"
Depth at center: 115,6 cm / 45 1/2"
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Microwave Oven #1 (Marilyn Manson)
2003-2004
Acrylic and bondo on stretched canvas
40 x 59 x 40,5 cm
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Peavy Stack
2003-2004
Ancrylic and bondo on stretched canvas
6 parts: 103 x 64 x 39 cm each
Unique piece

Kaz Oshiro
Wall Cabinet #1 (I’ve been abducted)
2003-04
Acrylic on stretched canvas
38 x 115,5 x 30,5 cm

Kaz Oshiro
Exibition view, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1999-2006, Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, USA

Kaz Oshiro
Exibition view, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1999-2006, Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, USA

Kaz Oshiro
Exibition view, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1999-2006, Las Vegas Art Museum, Las Vegas, USA

Kaz Oshiro
http://www.janm.or
One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now, Japanese American National
Museum, Los Angeles, USA, curated by Melissa Chiu, Karin Higa, and Susette S.
Min
Born in 1967, Okinawa, Japan
Lives and works in Los Angeles, California
We are living in an environment where we are surrounded by all kinds of objects;
these objects often become second nature to us and soon we begin to care less
about them. In that sense, objects exist just like the environmental noise that we are
no longer sensitive to. John Cage and his friends have argued that even irritating
ordinary noise can be valuable, like chamber music with its own will. Their argument
recommends putting existing sounds on the same table and proposes that there is
an anti-hierarchical sentiment within every sound in the world.
I think I am recomposing objects as “noise” for my environment by using common
painter’s materials. I’m interested in these objects I see that at first irritate, then we
ignore. I remember and reformat them by using the painter’s vocabulary. Thus,
ideally my objects may be placed in any condition at any place without identification
that labels the objects as art. Hopefully, my works transcend the chaotic aspect
within our ambience as does environmental noise

San Francisco Bay Guardian | Arts and Entertainment
28/02/06 18:18
Feb. 22 - Feb.28, 2006• Vol. 40, No. 21
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Knockoffs
Kaz Oshiro and Molly Springfield repurpose your junk
By Glen Helfand
› a&eletters@sfbg.com
Kaz Oshiro and Molly Springfield may not know each other, but they
both devote an inordinate amount of time to artworks that, on the
surface, look rather ordinary. Their projects' deceptive nature, however,
is the key to their appeal. His sculpture and her drawings evoke the
curious relationships we forge with our stuff in a world of throwaways
and eBay redistribution of the cast-off. Value is a taste-driven thing.
The pairing of these two artists at the adventurous Steven Wolf Fine Arts
gallery offers a means to explore, from opposite ends of a personality
spectrum, a similar impulse to re-create mundane, manufactured objects
with the human hand. Oshiro — born in Japan in the late '60s and based
in LA, makes faux dorm fridges and audio equipment that are convincing
relics from the life of a wannabe rocker. Springfield, who is in her late
20s and lives in Washington, DC, painstakingly renders versions of
photocopied pages from books; her pieces have a direct line to the mind
of a lit or art history grad student. More than 20 years after artists like
Richard Prince used the camera to coolly claim ownership of other artists'
work, the practice of handcrafted appropriation addresses a pervasive
yearning to give our prefab, but very personal, laptops and iPods warmth
and fuzz.
The three-dimensional nature of Oshiro's work, along with its pop culture
foundations, makes it the more immediately accessible of the two artists'
projects. The spare installation of his objects in the gallery calls to mind
an underfurnished warehouse loft more than an exhibition space. In one
corner there's an unassuming stack of familiar white speakers — Bose
Entertainment Sound System (2002) is its title. Nearby sits a small,
lonely amp — Fender Vibro Champ #3 (2005). The materials listed for
each of these are acrylic and Bondo on stretched canvas.
Trashbin #9 (2005), an object that seems hijacked from a Wendy's
dining room, almost abuts a pillar. There's just enough room to peer
around and see that there's no back to the thing — you can see right
into it, a vision of the familiar backside of a painting canvas stapled to a
wood support. There are stains of cola-colored liquid pooled on the top of
the bin. The piece is a convincing enough re-creation that guests
attempted to dump plastic cups into it at the opening.
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San Francisco Bay Guardian | Arts and Entertainment
28/02/06 18:18
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This kind of art may be a one-liner, relying on the awe of being fooled by
trompe l'oeil, or it may be simply an appropriation of movie
prop–building practice. Yet there's something about the hollow interior
of the rubbish bin that nudges the viewer toward a consideration of
positive and negative space and the visual construction of the world we
inhabit. What's plainly visible inside the backless pieces is the artist's
signature. Wall Cabinet #5 and Small Fridge #5 (Black Flag) (both
2005) — the latter with a reference to the punk band expressed in an
artist-rendered sticker on the fake wood-grain appliance — are installed
realistically against the wall. Their trickery is not visible, a strategy that
introduces an existential sense of futility. All that time and effort, and
for what
Springfield's monochromatic graphite drawings invoke the same
question. They're actual-size renderings of murky copy-machine output:
Call her a photocopy realist. The sheets of thick rag paper, with a subtly
rippled texture that is one of the few signals that this is "art," are hung
from the wall with an upscale version of office clips. The show includes
14 drawings, making it clear that hers is a committed practice that's
dour and daft.
These works gain their power from the way Springfield lavishes attention
on the tiny though often legible typefaces. You can read them if you're
so inclined. The selections are quite conscious, although the artist has
been known to nab a random subject from the copy center floor to shake
things up. Astute readers will note a spread from Elements of Style ("11.
Don't explain too much"). The artist engages language as an aspect of
conceptual art in the same way that, say, Eva Hesse did by making wall
works that extended from the wall. In fact, one of Springfield's drawings,
Hang Up (2005), includes an illustration of Hesse's similarly titled
1965–'66 piece. The younger artist's act is as much a gesture of hero
worship as an act of self-conscious art referencing. The land of academia,
after all, is very much about deliberation.
But Springfield also pays close attention to the gray areas of visual noise
and distortion introduced by electronics, where there's no book and the
copier has photographed itself. In these regions abstraction takes over.
It's a gray area where the drawing becomes a transcendent, meditative
site of ideas — all the better that the artist may have found it in the
Kinko's recycling bin. *
KAZ OSHIRO AND MOLLY SPRINGFIELD
Through March 25
Steven Wolf Fine Arts
49 Geary, SF
(415) 263-3677
www.stevenwolffinearts.com
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