Artist Overview: Kaz Oshiro

Kaz Oshiro's Still Lifes

The emergence of Kaz Oshiro's stretched canvas works represents a paradigm shift in the world of still-life painting.  Like Robert Ryman before him, Oshiro's work focuses on the real experience of painting.  Unlike Ryman however, the real experience of painting begins with the construction of the canvas.  The problem is not worked out on the surface of the canvas, but in the three dimensional realm.  The piece below, Untitled Still Life, is exemplary of this approach.  The work is what it is, similar to the approach taken by Isa Genzken in relation to the still-life.

Source: Contempory Art Daily

"I thought that by making an object out of a canvas I’d be able to achieve what I want to do, which is practice making things physically. But at the same time, I wouldn’t have to explain much: it’s a still life sitting on the floor. It’s a painting." -Kaz Oshiro, Kaz Oshiro's "Painting Problem"

Simulacram

Source: Yvon Lambert

The majority Oshiro's work can be seen as simulacra of everyday objects.  His paintings remain humble; his goal is not to transform the found object into an art object.  Inversely, Oshiro takes the elevated status of Pollock's canvas and quietly places it back on the ground, so to speak.  He uses traditional objects from the realm of painting (stretchers, canvas, and paint) and transforms them into what reads at first glance as an everyday object.  After closer inspection though, the viewer realizes that it the object is a hyperrealistic three-dimensional representation of that object. 

Source:  http://artsceneseen.tumblr.com

The image that is painted on each two dimensional surface is exactly that: a duplication of the surface being represented (which could stand alone as an abstract painting). It is only in the greater context that the illusion is created: Oshiro's works are "real illusions."  If each canvas was placed alone on a wall all that would remain would be a weak attempt at capturing the sublime.  Gestalt: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Source: Galerie Perrotin