He was born in Columbia, SC, 1984. He studied Visual Art in New York and Maryland. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
His solo exhibitions include On Apparition, Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York (2024); Lost Stranger, BEERS, London (2024); Foreign Relations, Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami (2023); Floating Head, A+B Gallery, Brescia (2020); Mound, 701 CCA, Columbia (2017) and 62 Miles Above Sea Level, Greenwich House, New York (2013). Among his selected group exhibitions are Dirimart Presents X: Living in Colour, Dirimart Dolapdere, Istanbul (2023); New Beginnings, Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong (2022); La Banda, Tappeto Volante Gallery, Brooklyn (2021); Osamu Kobayashi and Francesco De Prezzo, Spazio Leonardo, Milan (2020); Smaller Beckons II, Tapp’s Arts Center, Columbia (2017); Big and Bold: Selections from the Collection, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia (2016) and Premio Lissone, Lissone Contemporary Art Museum, Lissone (2014). In 2021 he was awarded a NYFA Artist Fellowship, in 2019 he was awarded a prestigious residency grant by the Lepsien Art Foundation in Düsseldorf, in 2013, Kobayashi received the Hassam, Speicher, Betts, and Symons Purchase Fund Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
A+B Solo show:
Group Show:
2013. Oltre il pesiero. Quattordici ricerche attraverso la materia.
Osamu Kobayashi’s gestural work exists at the intersection of abstraction and physicality, where vibrant colors and dynamic brushstrokes transform the canvas into a space of play and exploration. His paintings, often built from just two or three essential tones, display bisections, intersections, and floating forms within luminous fields of color. The paint, sometimes applied thickly, invites tactile engagement, while the forms remain at once organic and geometric, structured yet fluid.
Kobayashi’s reductive approach balances control and chance, warmth and coolness. The use of oversized brushes and gestures involving both the artist’s whole body and the entire surface of the painting creates a tactile, almost sculptural presence. While suggesting familiar imagery, the forms remain open to interpretation, inviting multiple readings.