Oscar Oiwa

Oiwa was born in São Paulo, Brazil, son of Japanese immigrants. He received his B.F.A. (1989) from the School of Architecture and Urbanism, São Paulo University. Oiwa was influenced by comic books, art, and magazines throughout his youth, as well as the urban environment of his birthplace. He experienced contemporary art during this time in nearby galleries and became an assistant at the São Paulo Art Biennial. Oiwa held his first solo exhibition while he was still in college and thereafter participated in the 21st São Paulo Art Biennial (1991). He relocated to Tokyo in 1991 after graduating from the university. After ten years in Japan, interrupted by a year spent in London, he moved to New York in 2002. He lives and works in New York City. His artwork has been exhibited worldwide.

Oiwa relocated to Tokyo in 1991 after graduating from the university. After ten years in Japan, interrupted by a year spent in London, he moved to New York in 2002 and has since made that city base of operations. His decision both times to relocate to another country was motivated by a desire to expand his activities as an artist, he says. [1]

Oiwa's works present us with a world closely familiar and yet completely unexpected. As is often said, it is a world constructed of dissimilar or opposing elements that, although starkly different, coexist. Behind the fascination Oiwa's works awaken in so many people is the originality and breadth of vision with which he connects these innumerable elements – their amplitude, in other words . [2]

Many art writers have called his work criticism of globalization, something that has also been called the cause of 9/11. Oiwa, however, says globalization is not entirely bad. In fact, this globe-trotting artist may be the epitome of globalization; his artwork a look at our world simultaneously from the inside and out.[3]

Oiwa has had more than 50 solo exhibitions worldwide since 1985 [4]

• 2020–“The Dreams of a Sleeping World”, USC Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena
• 2019–“After Midnight”, Mizuma, Kips & Wada Art, New York
• 2019–“Black and Light”, Cadillac House, New York
• 2019–“Journey to the Light”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
• 2019–“Oscar Oiwa”, Hangar Art Center, Brussels
• 2019–“Oscar Oiwa”, Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, Paris
• 2018-A Light-filled Ginza, Tokyo Gallery, Tokyo
• 2018–“Oscar Oiwa in Paradise-Drawing the Ephemeral”, Japan House, São Paulo
• 2018–“The Light from the Forest”, Keumsan Gallery, Seoul
• 2016–“The World is filled with Light”, Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
• 2011–“After Midnight”, Thomas Cohn Gallery, São Paulo
• 2011–“Oscar Oiwa”, National Art Museum, Rio de Janeiro
• 2009–”Asian Kitchen”, BTAP, Beijing
• 2008–“The Dreams of a Sleeping World”, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo / Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima / Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa (−2009)
• 2007–“Fire Shop”, P.P.O.W., New York
• 2006–“Invisible Reflex”, Ikeda Museum of 20th Century Art, Shizuoka
• 2006–“Gardening with Oscar Oiwa”, Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona (−2007)

• Oiwa, Oscar (1995). Art At First Time. Skydoor Inc., Tokyo. ISBN 4-915879-22-4.
• Oiwa, Oscar (2000). ART&ist, Gendaikikakushitsu Publishers, Tokyo. ISBN 4-7738-0014-3.
• Zeitlin, Marylin (2006). Gardening with Oscar Oiwa: New Paintings, Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix. ISBN 0-9777624-2-4.
• Chinzei, Yoshimi and Yamashita, Yuji (2008). Oscar Oiwa: Painting in the Age of Globalization, Gendaikikakushitsu Publishers, Tokyo. ISBN 978-4-7738-0801-8.
• Chinzei, Yoshimi; Bucci, Angelo and Minemura, Toshiaki (2009). Asian Kitchen, Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, Tokyo/Beijing. ISBN 978-4-904149-00-3.
• Komatsuzaki, Takuro. Zeitlin, Marylin. Crivelli Visconti, Jacopo and Oiwa, Oscar(2016). The Creation of the World, Kyuryudo Art-Publishing, Co., Ltd., Tokyo. ISBN 978-4-7630-1611-9
• Oiwa, Oscar (2000). Journey to the Light, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Kyuryudo Art Publishing, Tokyo. ISBN 9784763019141.

Oiwa's work is held in public collections including The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (Tokyo), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Yokohama Museum of Art (Kanagawa), Toyota Municipal Museum(Aichi), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art(Hiroshima), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art(Hyogo), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa(Ishikawa), Utsunomiya Museum of Art (Tochigi), Phoenix Museum of Art(Arizona), Arizona State University Art Museum (Arizona), Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and University of São Paulo Museum of Contemporary Art (USP).

• 2001-John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, New York
• 2001-Asian Cultural Council grant, Tokyo / New York
• 1997– The Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, New York
• 1996-Grand Prize, Sakae ward residents’ Award, The 4th Yokohama Biannual, Kanagawa
• 1995-Artist in Residence Award, The Delfina Studio Trust, London
• 1995-Encouragement Award, The Vision of Contemporary Art (VOCA), The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo

• Oscar Oiwa Studio Official website
• Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
• Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, Tokyo/Beijing
• Gallery Caption, Gifu
• Keumsan Gallery, Seoul