Shinro Ohtake "Shell & Occupy"

Take Ninagawa

Finished

Artists

Shinro Ohtake

Take Ninagawa is proud to announce the opening of "Shell and Occupy," the first in a series of solo exhibitions for mid-career artist Shinro Ohtake that will continue at the gallery through August 2008. Presenting never-displayed collages from the 1990s and recent minimal wallmounted objects made from hundreds of pasted sheets of paper, "Shell and Occupy" examines Shinro Ohtake’s use of "stickering" as the foundation for a visual language that intuitively responds to the mechanical reproduction of information, experience and desire driving contemporary society. Throughout his career, Ohtake has made paintings, sculptures, installations and works in other media by pasting together found and original images, materials and even pieces of neon signs he has picked up from the street. He finds a parallel for this creative process in the habits of Japanese youth who use scores of miniature "Print Club" keepsake photos to turn notebooks, compact mirrors, cell phones and other everyday surfaces into glossy, yet ephemeral artifacts.

The exhibition centerpiece is one of the artist’s signature scrapbooks, from a series of oversize artist books that Ohtake has been making continuously since 1977. Comprised of roughly-bound sheets of paper encased in a unique hard-cover shell, #56: 1996-97, Uwajima is a kaleidoscopic delirium built up through dense applications of material torn from product packaging, advertising, newspapers, cartoons, pornography and subculture magazines, pulp fiction, currency, ticket stamps and other sources.

Opening Reception: May 17th (Sat), 18:00-20:00

Schedule

May 17 (Sat) 2008-Jun 14 (Sat) 2008