Kaz Oshiro: Paintings and Works on Paper, 1999-2006 is the first comprehensive survey of works by Los Angeles-based, Japanese artist Kaz Oshiro, and the artist’s Las Vegas debut. When first encountered, Oshiro’s distinctive, three-dimensional paintings appear to be sculptural replicas of conspicuously banal, mass-produced objects. Working in series, Oshiro has produced various brand-name electronic amplifiers, stereo speakers, car bumpers, kitchen cabinets, fast-food trash receptacles, washers and dryers, mini refrigerators, microwave ovens, and, most recently, Toyota truck tailgates.

Most of the objects show signs of use and wear in the form of faux scuffs and stains, or bumper stickers and other types of popular graphic appliqués that appear to be stuck on the surfaces of the objects, but in fact have been painstakingly emulated in paint by Oshiro. Three-dimensional elements attached to the paintings, such as knobs and handles, are sculpted in Bondo and painted by the artist to appear to be real pieces of hardware. All the paintings are startlingly convincing in their trompe l’oeil effects, despite the fact that Oshiro paints only the fronts and sides of the objects, and intentionally displays his paintings such that the backsides reveal the works’ construction of ordinary stretcher bars and canvas.