Kaz Oshiro

Kaz Oshiro is best known for creating high fidelity sculptures of everyday objects—microwaves, dumpsters, file cabinets. By using the materials of painting (paint, canvas, stretcher bars) to fabricate sculpture, Oshiro’s work transcends tromp l'oeil trickery and blurs the distinction between the two media. Influenced by Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, Pop Art, and 17th-century still-life canvases, Oshiro uses painting to explore spatiality. His practice is conceptually driven, and the resulting work appears to be straightforward and minimal. The complexity of his practice is riveting, as he pushes the confines of painting by straddling the principles of both abstraction and representation. His desire to make discreet paintings is a way to intersect the principles of conceptualism, abstraction, and representation.

He has had solo exhibitions at the LACMA in Los Angelea and Villa du Parc in Annemasse. He has participated in group shows at the Hunter College/Times Square Gallery in New York, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and UCLA’s Hammer Museum in Los Angeles.

Courtesy of LACMA