ARTISTS

OSCAR OIWA

Oscar OIWA
大岩オスカール

I am an artist of in-between worlds. Born in São Paulo to Japanese parents and working internationally, my practice emerges from movement across cultures, landscapes, and psychological states. I use landscape as a living, unstable space where cities, nature, and memory merge, and shifts in scale reflect contemporary uncertainty. Through immersive drawings, including panoramic works in inflatable domes, I surround viewers with imagined envi ronments that slow perception and dissolve boundaries between inner and outer worlds, inviting reflection on how we inhabit fragile, changing environments.

BIOGRAPHY

1965 Born in São Paulo, Brazil.

1989 Graduated from School of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo.

1991 Moved to Tokyo.

2002 Moved to New York City.

Currently lives and works in New York City.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2011 After Midnight (Thomas Cohn Gallery/São Paulo)
Oscar Oiwa (National Art Museum/Rio de Janeiro)
Oscar Oiwa (Agathe Hélion Gallery/Paris)

2012 Traveling Light (Keumsan Gallery/Seoul)
Shibuya Hikarie CUBE/Art Front Gallery/Tokyo, Japan)

2013 Stormy Weather (Nara Roesler Gallery/São Paulo)

2015 Silent Ocean (Keumsan Gallery/Seoul)

2016 The World is filled with Light (Art Front Gallery/Tokyo, Japan)

2018 Oscar Oiwa in Paradise-Drawing the Ephemeral (Japan House/São Paulo)
The Light from the Forest (Keumsan Gallery/Seoul)
Ginza filled with light (Tokyo Gallery/Tokyo)

2019 Transphère #6 Oscar Oiwa Rio, Tokyo, Paris des villes, des Jeux (Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris/Paris)
Journey to the Light (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art/Kanazawa, Japan)
Black and Light (Cadillac House/New York)
After Midnight (Mizuma, Kips & Wada Art/New York)

2020 The Dreams of a Sleeping World (USC Pacific Asia Museum/Pasadena, CA)

2021 Quarantine Series (Art Front Gallery/Tokyo, Japan)

2022 If I were Living in… (Keumsan Gallery/Seoul)
The Dreams of a Sleeping World (Seaside Art gallery/Pingtung, Taiwan)
If I were Living in… (Nowhere/New York)

2023 If I were Living in… (Guryongpo Art Factory/South Korea)
Metropolis (Nowhere/New York)
My Ring (Artfront Gallery/Tokyo)

2024 Oscarscape (Tower 49 Gallery/New York)
Light Shop (Tsutaya Gallery/Kyoto)
Oil Octopus (Hikarie Gallery/Tokyo)

2025 Light Shop (Ginza Tsutaya Gallery/Tokyo)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

1991 The 21st International Biennial of São Paulo (Ibirapuera Park/São Paulo)

1993 Brazilian Art Today (Fujita Vente Museum/Tokyo, Japan)

1995 The Vision of Contemporary Art (The Ueno Royal Museum/Tokyo, Japan): Encouragement Award

1996 The 4th Yokohama Biannual (Yokohama, Kanagawa): Grand Prize, Sakae ward residents' Award

1997 Voices from Tokyo (Galeria Metropolitana de Barcelona/Barcelona, ACC Gallery Weimar/Weimar Germany, Espace Fron/Lausanne Switzerland) (-1998)

1999 Museum Walk: workshop and exhibition (Utsunomiya Museum of Art/Tochigi, Japan)
Art is Fun 10 Hell in Heaven (Hara Museum ARC/Gunma)

2000 Vacant Lot (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art/Aichi, Japan)
Gift of Hope (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo/Tokyo, Japan)

2001 In Search of Form (Pusan Metropolitan Art Museum/Pusan, South Korea)

2002 Cyclical Art Site (Oita Art Museum/Oita, Japan)
Here is the Museum (Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art/Shizuoka, Japan)

2003 Japan Rising (Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art/Florida)
Travelling: Towards the Border (The National Museum of Modern Art/Tokyo, Japan)

2007 the (s) files (El Museo del Barrio/New York)

2008 Laços do Olhar (Instituto Tomie Ohtake/São Paulo)

2009 Sacred Monsters (Tufts University Art Gallery/Massachusetts)
Animamix Biennial (Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei/Taipei, Taiwan - Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai/Shanghai, China) (-2010)
Niigata Water and Soil Art Festival (Niigata City Art Museum/Niigata)

2010 Japanese Brazilian Artists from the Akagawa Collection (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art/Hyogo, Japan)

2011 Group 1965 (Kunsthalle Dusseldorf/Germany・The National Cultural-Art Museum, Art Arsenal/Kiev, Ukraine)

2014 Le Printemps de Haute Corrèze (Abbaye Saint André-Centre d'art contemporain Meymac/France)
Land of Sunlight –Oscar Oiwa and Japanese-Brazilian Artists (Gunma Museum of Art/Tatebayashi, Japan)
Cidade Politica (Sala de arte Santander/São Paulo)

2015 A Bird's–eye View of the World (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art/Hiroshima, Japan)
Rokko Meets Art-Art Walk 2015 (Rokko Mountain/Hyogo, Japan)

2016 Collection Exhibition 2 Diary (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa/Kanazawa)

2017 Transpacific Borderlands (Japanese American National Museum/Los Angeles, CA)
Japan Alps Art Festival (Nagano, Japan)

2018 Beyond the End: Ruins in Art History (The Shoto Museum of Art/Tokyo, Japan) (-2019)

2019 Weavers of Worlds (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo/Tokyo, Japan)
One Hundred Years of Knitters (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo/Tokyo)
Setouchi Triennale 2019 (Ogijima/Shamijima/Kagawa, Japan) (also in 2010, 2013, 2016)

2020 HIROSHIMA, the 75th Summer (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art/Hiroshima, Japan)

2021 Living in Symbiosis with Forests and Water (Nagano Prefectural Art Museum/Nagano, Japan)
Oku-Noto Triennale 2020+ (Suzu, former Shoin Station/Ishikawa, Japan)
"Amabie in the Age of COVID-19" Project (Kadokawa Culture Museum/Saitama, Japan)
Kadokawa Musashino Museum (Saitama)
MOT Collection: Journals (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo/Tokyo, Japan)
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

2022 Range of the Senses: What It Means to "Experience" Today (The National Museum of Art/Osaka, Japan)
Ogijima Pavillion (Setouchi Triennale/Ogijima, Japan)
Works from collection (Museum of Contemporary/Tokyo, Japan)

2023 Echoes from New York (LURF GALLERY/Tokyo, Japan)
Keelung Ciao (Keelung, Taiwan・Ichihara Lakeside Museum/Chiba, Japan)
Ichihara Lakeside Art Museum, Chiba, Japan

2024 Private View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Ryutaro Takahashi Collection (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo/Tokyo)
The Wave Effect (Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art/Haifa, Israel)
Takahashi Collection (Museum of Contemporary Art/Tokyo, Japan)
Sailing for Hope (Seaside Gallery/Pingtung, Taiwan)

2025 Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010 (The National Art Center/Tokyo, Japan)

AWARDS & GRANTS

1995 Encouragement Award (The Vision of Contemporary Art/The Ueno Royal Museum/Tokyo, Japan)
Artist in Residence Award (The Delfina Studio Trust/London)

1996 Grand Prize, Sakae ward residents' Award (The 4th Yokohama Biannual/Kanagawa, Japan)

1997 Funded by Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York

2001 Received a grant from Asian Cultural Council, Tokyo (New York)
Grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York

2019 Receive the Medal of Honor from His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan

2021 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Individual Support Grant (New York)

PUBLIC/PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona/Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona/The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo/Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo/Mori Art Museum, Tokyo/Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo/Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima/Toyota Municipal Museum of Art,Aichi/Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo/Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Fukushima/Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa/21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa/Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo, São Paulo/Gyeongnam Art Museum, Changwon, South Korea/USC Pacific Asia Museum, California