IBASHO is proud to present the second solo-exhibition at the gallery of the female Japanese photographer Yoko Ikeda. The exhibition coincides with the launch of her new book ‘Contrepoint’, which is a coproduction of IBASHO & the(M) éditions. Like the book, the exhibition will be a showcase of Ikeda’s body of work.

Ikeda was born in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa Prefecture. She works and lives in Tokyo. She studied at the Research Department of Tokyo College of Photography. In 2013 she was the recipient of the Philadelphia Museum of Art Purchase Award and in 2016 she received the prestigious Higashikawa New Photographer Award. In 2018 Ikeda received the Alpa Award for her work shown at Photo Basel. Ikeda’s work has been widely exhibited in Europe, the United States and Japan. In 2015, the year that Mons was European Capital of Culture, her work was part of Regards de femmes in Maison Folie.

Cheap transparent plastic umbrellas lying on the grey concrete; rather simple, mundane objects in one of Yoko Ikeda’s photographs. The image Ikeda has created of this scene, however, is poetic, fragile, almost ephemeral. She has the extraordinary ability to see the beauty in seemingly meaningless objects and to elevate them to beautiful precious subjects in her photographs. Her images show respect for every little element that forms our big world. Ikeda plays with shadows, colours, lines and textures that she comes across while moving through and observing everyday life.

By means of her camera Ikeda has created her own way of seeing and showing an outside world that one would normally not be able to see. Within Ikeda’s compositions there is often no reference point. The space is flattened and abstracted, the location is ambiguous. She experiments with unusual view points and focus. Ikeda searches for contrasts in form and light and makes use of unexpected framing.