IBASHO is delighted to present ‘Tokyo/Ehime’, a solo exhibition by Swedish photographer Gerry Johansson at the IBASHO gallery in Antwerp, opening on 18 January 2025 in the presence of the artist.
Gerry Johansson (1945, Sweden) is one of Sweden's most renowned photographers. Working predominantly in black and white, Johansson is attracted to the overlooked details of urban space. Over the years, he has created works in the United States, Sweden, Italy, Japan, Germany, and Spain, publishing several photo books. At IBASHO, we present a selection of photographs from the series ‘Tokyo’ and ‘Ehime’, which the artist made in Japan.
Tokyo, through Johansson’s lens, transforms into a serene and structured city, far from the usual noise and active street life. Captured in the spring of 2004, the photographs reduce the sprawlingly modern futuristic metropolis to its essence: sharp lines, geometric forms and patterns, modular architecture. Also published as a photo book, ‘Tokyo’ turns the city’s chaos into carefully composed scenes of stillness and abstract architectural harmony. Johansson simplifies the layered cityscape into striking compositions, where angles and shapes take center stage, often contrasting with elements of nature’s wilderness. His approach echoes the style of the 1970s New Topographics movement, led by photographers like Lewis Baltz and Nicholas Nixon, whose black and white photographs transformed urban spaces into rhythmic abstractions. Johansson’s “Tokyo" series is a sophisticated investigation of the city’s contemporary structure, evoking a sense of calm and quiet, in the absence of human presence.
In 1999, Gerry Johansson spent four weeks in Matsuyama, located in Japan’s Ehime prefecture, south of Hiroshima. The resulting series ‘Ehime’ is an exploration of the modern Japanese city and examines the influence of traditional cultural symbols, particularly in relation to nature. Johansson focuses on the fundamental elements of Japanese culture - mountains, trees, water - capturing them both in nature, as well as as symbols in contemporary Japan. With this work, the photographer poses the question, “what is Japan today?”. Using a large format 8x10 camera, Johansson creates images which reflect on the notion of beauty in the urban Japanese landscape. “Ehime” resist easy categorisation, showing instead the interconnectedness of tradition and modernity.
Gerry Johansson studied graphic design at the School of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg, Sweden. After graduating in 1969, he worked as a graphic designer before devoting himself fully to photography in the mid-1980s. Johansson's works are held in the collections of the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden, and in the Tangen Collection of the Kunstsilo in Kristiansand, Norway. Since 1985, Gerry Johansson has published over thirty books, including the recent Maine (The Ice Plant, 2024), Spanish Summer (MACK, 2022) and American Winter (MACK, 2018). He has been awarded the Swedish Arts Grants Committee's Award (2012), the Lars Tunbjörk Prize (2019) and the Prince Eugen Medal (2024). He lives and works in Höganäs, Sweden.
The exhibition ‘Tokyo/Ehime' will run from 18 January until 9 March 2025.
