Matthew Pillsbury: Tokyo, Pop-up Exhibition

The Douglas Udell Gallery presents Matthew Pillsbury’s Tokyo, a temporary pop-up exhibition in parallel with Vancouver's Capture Photography Festival this April 2015.

The Douglas Udell Gallery Vancouver closed its permanent operations in 2014 but remains committed to upholding its legacy within the vibrant Vancouver art community. Matthew Pillsbury: Tokyo will be the first of many Douglas Udell Gallery pop-up exhibitions in Vancouver.

Project Statement:

“For over a decade now, I have made long exposure photographs using only available light. Across several series and in many cities, I have focused on the passage of time and people within spaces both public and private. My work has addressed the growing role that technology is playing in our lives and the sense of modern seclusion that can seem at odds with the constant connectivity being offered by our smartphones and tablets.

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Matthew Pillsbury "Daibutsu - Kotoku - in Temple, Kamakura TV 14633"

Matthew Pillsbury "Daibutsu - Kotoku - in Temple, Kamakura TV 14633", 2014, Archival Pigment Ink Print, 30 X 40 in.

Millions of people file through the streets and subways of Tokyo – the world’s most populous megalopolis – and yet it is often done silently, with each person quietly interacting with their gadgets. That disconnect is at the very heart of so much of our modern existence and part of what I wanted to convey in some of the Tokyo images.

Technology use, as it has in much of the world, has increased exponentially in Tokyo, latching itself onto everything from modern-day cell phone-obsessed geisha women to the ultra-hip neighborhood of Shinjuku, where themed clubs and bars now include high-tech robotics as a featured part of the entertainment. Expecting to encounter the kinetic energy depicted in the William Klein and Andreas Gursky photographs of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, I arrived to discover that the once buzzing trading floor is now run in almost unnerving stillness by computers. While the temples are still revered and deeply respected places of worship, pop culture and rebellion amongst Western-obsessed Japanese youth have crept irreversibly in, forcing sacred and traditional sites to share cultural importance with modern Manga robots and Disney castles.

To capture this shifting energy and some of the surreal scenes I encountered, I have started making color photographs and using much shorter exposures. Photographing for the first time in a completely foreign environment has freed me to look at the world with a renewed sense of wonderment.”

About the Artist:

Matthew Pillsbury (American) was born in France in 1973. He studied at Yale University (BFA, 1995); and at the School of Visual Arts, New York (MFA, 2004). Based in New York City, his work has been exhibited internationally and is widely held in private and museum collections, including the Sir Elton John Photography Collection, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and Guggenheim Museum, all in New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Musée du Louvre, Paris; and Tate Modern, London.

In 2007, Pillsbury won the Prix HSBC pour la Photographie, which published his first monograph Time Frame. In 2013 Aperture released City Stages, a second monograph encompassing his work of the past decade. An accompanying exhibit was held in 2014 at the Aperture Foundation in New York. Most recently, Matthew was one of 11 Guggenheim photography fellows to receive the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 2014. Matthew is represented by the Douglas Udell Gallery in Canada, Benrubi Gallery in New York and Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta.

Douglas Udell Gallery Vancouver Pop-up

1566 W. 6th Ave. Second Floor

Vancouver, BC V6J 1R2