Oscar Tuazon (née Hansen) is an American artist based in Los Angeles who works in sculpture, architecture, and mixed media.

Early life

Oscar Tuazon was born Oscar Hansen on July 9, 1975, in a geodesic dome his parents built in the woods at Indianola, Kitsap County, Washington. ^[1] He attended Deep Springs College, Cooper Union, and the Whitney Independent Study Program. ^[2] In 2001 he served as a founding board member at the Center for Urban Pedagogy in New York with his former Deep Springs classmate Damon Rich. ^{[3] [4]}

Oscar met and married Lan Tuazon in New York in the mid-90s and changed his name from Oscar Hansen to Oscar Tuazon. The couple would later be divorced, but he kept the last name. ^[5] His brother and frequent collaborator, Elias Hansen, is also an artist. ^{[6] [7]}

Career

Professionally, he began his career working in the Studio Acconci of architect/artist Vito Acconci. ^[8] After moving to Paris in 2007, he began exhibiting widely in Europe. ^[9] He has since then exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial, and many group and solo shows throughout the world, and is in major art collections such as Saatchi's. ^{[10] [11]}

A critic in the art magazine Frieze wrote in 2013 that "like his heroes, from Gordon Matta-Clark to wilderness survivalists, Tuazon’s non-conformist approach to artistic practice plays at the juncture of architecture, sculpture and performance." ^[12] A New York Times review described his work as "haunting ... pit[ting] Mr. Acconci's robust ego against Mr. Tuazon's raw and fragile subjectivity." ^[13]

Personal life

In 2013, he moved from France to the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles with his three children and wife Dorothée Perret, a former editor at Purple Magazine who now helms the art magazine "Paris, LA." ^{[14] [15]}

Exhibitions

2007 ^[16]

• Where I lived and what I lived for, Palais de Tokyo, Paris
• I'd rather be gone, Standard, Oslo
• Oscar Tuazon / Mike Freeman, castillo/corrales Gallery, Paris
• Voluntary Non vulnerable (with Eli Hansen), Bodgers and Kludgers, Vancouver

2008

• Kodiak (with Eli Hansen), Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
• Dirty Work, Jonathan Viner, London
• This World’s Just Not Real To Me (with Eli Hansen), Howard House, Seattle

2009

• Bend It Till It Breaks, Centre international d'art et du paysage de Vassivière (France)
• Against Nature, Künstlerhaus, Stuttgart, Germany- Ass To Mouth, Balice Hertling, Paris
• Another Nameless Venture Gone Wrong, Haugar Vestfold Kunstmuseum, Tønsberg (Norway)

2010

• Sex Booze Weed Speed, (with Gardar Eide Einarsson), Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo
• My Mistake, ICA, Institute of Contemporary Art, London
• My Flesh to Your Bare Bones (with Vito Acconci), Maccarone, New York
• One of My Best Comes, Parc St Léger - Centre d'Art Contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux (France)

2011

• Die, The Power Station, Aldon Pinnell, Dallas
• STEEL, PRESSURE-TREATED WOOD, OAK POST, OFFICE CHAIR, INDUCTION STOVETOP, ALUMINUM, Standard, Oslo
• America is my Woman, Maccarone, New York

2012

• Shaman/Showman (with Karl Holmqvist), Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
• Scott Burton, Fondazione Giuliani, Rome
• Manual Labor, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
• Action, Jonathan Viner, London

2013

• Sensory Spaces 1, Musée Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam
• Spasms of Misuse, Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin
• DÉPENDANCE, dépendance, Brussels

2014

• I never learn, Standard, Oslo
• Alone in an empty room, Ludwig Museum, Cologne
• A home, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zürich
• Oh Brother, Maccarone, New York ^[17]

Prizes

Nominated for the Prix Fondation d'entreprise Ricard in 2009.

References