Artist: Michael Johansson
Exhibition title: Alternative Readings
Venue: The Flat – Massimo Carasi, Milan, Italy
Date: March 23 – May 11, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and The Flat – Massimo Carasi
In the exhibition “Alternative Readings”, Johansson continues to explore how our perception of the everyday objects we find ourselves surrounded with through simple methods can be shifted.
Apparent disparate objects gathered from different places and contexts are repackaged into coherent entities based on notions of colour and shape, in such a perfect fit they seem to be held together by some kind of invisible magnetism.
Parallel with the familiar there is something grueling and mysterious to be found in the work. When things are taken out of their natural context, their function becomes uncertain and turn into becoming something else, more impalpable and appealingly incomprehensible.
Over the years, Johansson has increasingly expanded and developed the approach to his material through various explorations as for example in the use of colour as a common denominator.
Reflections and doubles have now become a central theme.
After studies at the Art Academy in Trondheim, Norway, and Kunsthochschule Berlin Weissensee, Germany, Johansson took his masters degree at Malmö Art Academy, Sweden, 2005. Since then he has taken part of several residencies and exhibited frequently both within and outside of Sweden. Some of his most important solo exhibitions include Museum Voorlinden (NL), Galleri Andersson/Sandström (SE), Göteborg Art Museum (SE), Helsinki Contemporary (FI), Ystads Art Museum (SE) and Vigeland-museet (NO), and group exhibitions at Malmö Art Museum (SE), Bergen Art Museum (NO), Aeroplastics (BE), Royal British Society of Sculptors (UK), Galerie Filomena Soares (PT), Moscow Museum of Modern Art (RU) and Meessen de Clercq (BE). He has also carried out several major public commissions both in Sweden and abroad.
Alternative Readings is the artist’s fourth solo exhibition at the gallery The Flat – Massimo Carasi, Milan (IT)
Johansson was born 1975 in Trollhättan, Sweden, and currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Michael Johansson, Alternative Readings, 2018, exhibition view, The Flat – Massimo Carasi, Milan
Michael Johansson, Alternative Readings, 2018, exhibition view, The Flat – Massimo Carasi, Milan
Michael Johansson, Alternative Readings, 2018, exhibition view, The Flat – Massimo Carasi, Milan
Michael Johansson, Alternative reading, 2018 ordinary items, h 349x110x110 cm | 137½43½x43½ inches
Michael Johansson, Alternative reading, 2018 ordinary items, h 349x110x110 cm | 137½43½x43½ inches
Michael Johansson, Flip Shelf (orange), 2018 ordinary items, shelfs, h 100x72x31,5 cm | 39½x28¼x12½ inches
Michael Johansson, Flip Shelf (gray), 2018 gray ordinary items, shelfs, h 95x80x35 cm | 37½x31½x13¾ inches
Michael Johansson, Déjà vu, 2018 black ordinary items, h 45,5x44x42,5 cm | 18×17¼x16¾ inches
Michael Johansson, Flip Shelf (blue), 2018 blue ordinary items, shelfs, h 149,5x80x31 cm | 58½x31½x12¼ inches
Michael Johansson, Trasparent crossfade, 2017 glass items, h 28x28x28 cm | 11x11x11 inches
Michael Johansson, Flip shelf – Standing Unit, 2018 grey ordinary items, h 200x100x41 cm | 78¾x39½x16¼ inches
Michael Johansson, Flip shelf – Standing Unit, 2018 grey ordinary items, h 200x100x41 cm | 78¾x39½x16¼ inches
Michael Johansson, Corner piece, 2018 3 wooden chairs, h 139x139x134,5 cm | 54¾x54¾x53 inches
Michael Johansson, Corner piece, 2018 3 wooden chairs, h 139x139x134,5 cm | 54¾x54¾x53 inches
