Lot 1143: OSCAR OIWA SATIO

OSCAR OIWA SATIO
(b. 1965)
Apartment 2
left panel: signed, titled and inscribed 'Oscar Satio Oiwa New York Apartment 2' in English; dated '2006' (on the reverse); right panel: signed and inscribed 'Oscar Satio Oiwa New York' in English; dated '2006' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas diptych
each: 226 x 111 cm. (89 x 43 3/4 in.)
overall: 226 x 222 cm. (89 x 87 1/4 in.)
Painted in 2006

Fukushima, Japan, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, Oscar Oiwa - Painting in the Age of Globalization, 2008.

Fram Kitagawa Gendaikikakushitsu Publishers, Oscar Oiwa - Painting in the Age of Globalization, Tokyo, Japan, 2008 (illustrated p. 87).

Oscar Oiwa's nomadic nature has provided for countless residences in various world cities such as Sao Paulo, Japan, New York and London where in each city Oiwa has been a quiet observer and interpreter of his surroundings.

Themes of urbanism and its effect on human beings find expression in many of his works, especially in the Chaos series. Using fine brushstrokes, Oiwa approaches his canvases like a miniaturist, providing endless details for the viewer to piece together a contextual narrative. The resulting images of Oiwa are spectacularly detailed and retain an element of melancholic gloominess, as demonstrated in his diptych work Apartment 2 (Lot 1143).

Deserted and without a hint of nature, the grayish concrete skeletons of endless buildings rise to the sky, floor after floor, and, at the same time, disappear into the ground. Empty staircases lead nowhere and the unstable and somewhat dilapidated structures evoke images of vast natural disasters or war. Forever abandoned, only the scattered furniture and weak light in the center of the canvas bear witness to the human life once present in this mysterious emptiness.