Charles Osawa

Practice & background

Charles Osawa is a sculptor working primarily with discarded materials and resin. Born in Los Angeles in 1983 and based in New York, he studied interior and architectural design at Parsons and completed a BFA in Architectural Design in 2008. His practice brings structural thinking to the transformation of discarded matter.

In the NURSE series, waste from hospital wards becomes sculptural material. Zoid – The White Trash Lamp (2022) combines epoxy resin, trash and LED light, bringing reclaimed matter into the form of a lighting object. His website also presents Megastructure 001 (2025), made with upcycled trash and epoxy resin.

NURSE brings attention to waste associated with hospital care. NURSE JODY (v3.1N), from his third generation of standardized trash sculptures, is approximately four inches tall, encouraging close attention to embedded fragments. At eight feet high, Megastructure 001 (2025) takes related material concerns to an architectural scale. His website also records the 2025 Emerging Artist and Denis Diderot grants from Château d’Orquevaux.

In Who Art You, Osawa describes the concentration required to break down materials and mix resin as a meditative moment when physical action can interrupt overthinking. He identifies Andy Warhol’s idea of art as a mirror as an influence. Transforming neglected material becomes, in his account, both a reflection of society and a hopeful metaphor for change.

Looking at the work

Discarded matter is broken down and combined with resin, creating tension between its earlier use and new form. First try to identify the material, then ask whether becoming a sculpture or lamp changes the value you assign to it.