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OSCARSCAPE
Inner Landscapes from the Artist Oscar Oiwa

July 2024 – July 2025

NEW YORK — Tower 49 Gallery is pleased to present OSCARSCAPE  by the Brazilian-American artist Oscar Oiwa. The exhibition, which features sixteen oil paintings and a monumental drawing inspired by the Olympics, will remain open and free to the public through May 2025.

When he became an artist he retained that sense of freedom and adventure, composing many of his works from a bird’s eye view. His paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations unfold fantastical visions grounded in the real world: vaporous, amoeba-shaped clouds floating above a nighttime cityscape; shimmering currents of a violet river churning beneath an impossibly long, narrow bridge; swirls of intense color that could be the surface of a pond or disruptions in the stratosphere; dense green forests bursting with particles of light. Although inspired by his travels around the world, these scenes, the artist writes, are “not the real physical world but the result of my experience living in a certain place.” He terms Oscarscapes: “things I saw not with my eyes but my soul.”

In the East Lobby, Oiwa presents “Zeus the God of Olympia,” a wall-spanning ink drawing whose three sections depict the host cities of the modern Olympics: Rio de Janeiro in his native Brazil (2016); Tokyo, Japan (2020); and Paris, France (2024), all presided over by an enormous head of Zeus in the central (Tokyo) panel. The imagery includes well-known landmarks of each city, as well as their often claustrophobic infrastructure and details such as a police boat and an armoured car, which bring home the implicit risks that the games incur within the current political climate. Originally made for an exhibition at Maison de la Culture du Japon à Paris to promote the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the three sections are designed to be viewed horizontally or vertically.

Reflecting on his artistic roots and the technological advances that have transformed the world, he recalls: “One day, sitting in my studio chair, I was thinking about my past, my childhood memories, and my notion of the world from my fourth-floor apartment window. Googling, I found my childhood apartment; the building is still there! In my childhood, I looked at the world from my window. Now, I can see the same window from the world, and in my imagination, the little boy standing behind it.” 

OSCAR OIWA born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1965 received his B.F.A. in 1989 from the School of Architecture and Urbanism, São Paulo University. He participated in the 21st São Paulo Art Biennial (1991), and received awards, grants, and fellowships from institutions such as the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Asian Cultural Council. In 2019, he received the Medal of Honor from His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. Included in Solo exhibitions at The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2007), Japan House São Paulo (2019), The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (2019), The University of Southern California Pacific Asia Museum (2020), and Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris (2020), among others. 

His work is represented in numerous public collections, including The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Yokohama Museum of Art; Toyota Municipal Museum; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Arizona State University Art Museum; Phoenix Museum of Art; University of Southern California Pacific Asia Museum; and University of São Paulo Museum of Contemporary Art. 

He lives and works in New York City.

TOWER 49 GALLERY, one of New York City’s most unique and striking contemporary art spaces, offers exhibitions free and open to the public in the street-level lobbies and on the 24th floor of its Skidmore, Owings and Merrill-designed building. Spearheaded by Exhibition Director Ai Kato, the gallery’s mission is to foster exhibitions that challenge conventional ideas about public art, featuring such internationally contemporary artists as Friedel Dzubas, Frank Stella, Mark Di Suvero, Shigeno Ichimura, Natvar Bhavsar, Jules Olitski, Cordy Ryman, Michele Oka Doner, and Enrico Isamu Oyama. Tower 49 offers a unique exhibition space, inviting the public to explore art in everyday life.