The Retina series explores how technology has changed painting from the inside-out. In these works, Ohtake first makes experimental images by manually altering Polaroid film, which he subsequently enlarges to canvas size using a transfer process. The film transfer then provides the foundation for abstract mixed-media compositions. Ohtake made the first Retina works in 1988-91, then, after an interval of more than two decades, he revisited film that he had stored from the original period. Where previously he manually altered the film, in the recent Retina works the effects also come from the accidental deterioration of the film over time.

2023

AWT Focus 2023, “Worlds in Balance: Art in Japan from the Postwar to the
Present” (curated by Kenjiro Hosaka), Okura Museum of Art, Tokyo

2022

“Shinro Ohtake,” The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; The Museum of Art, Ehime; Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art and Design

2018

“Epoch,” ROH Projects, Jakarta

2006

“Shinro Ohtake Zen-Kei: Retrospective 1955-2006,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo

1993

“Shinro Ohtake: Retina,” Galerie Tokoro, Tokyo

1990

“Shinro Ohtake: Recent Works 1988-1990,” Galerie Tokoro, Tokyo