Christopher Thomas - Bittersweet

IN-DEPENDANCE by IBAHSO presents a solo exhibition by Munich-based artist Christopher Thomas starting at the opening of Antwerp Art Weekend. Bittersweet juxtaposes dreamlike, nostalgic imagery with the harsher realities of transience. 

The exhibition presents a selection of colour photographs by Thomas (1961), who is best known for his city portraits. In Bittersweet, he explores two seemingly opposing and contradictory notions. Yet when viewing the works, it becomes clear that this pairing offers a compelling way of expressing the inexpressible.

Thomas created the photographs in the decades-long project Bittersweet, across various countries and continents. His visual worlds revolve around themes of decay and finitude, focusing on places where something once existed but no longer does, where change has taken hold.

He presents symbols that evoke childhood and a sense of happiness: merry-go-rounds, ice cream cones, bubble gum machines, circus tents, fairs, candy floss, lucky bags, roller skates, ferris wheels, tricycles and more. These motifs are set within both rural and urban landscapes. In most of the images, people are absent. They immediately call to mind a lost sense of childhood, spontaneity and immediacy. Yet beneath the often superficially seductive imagery lies a quiet unease: the fear of losing that sense of bliss, and the inescapable passage of time.

Christopher Thomas: “This series is about feelings: sad ones, happy ones and everything in between. It is melancholic and warm. It is about joy and fear, it is about gain and loss, it is about the beginning and the end of life and the whole time in between. It is about time and how everything changes within it. As we do, too.”

The exhibition Bittersweet will be on view from 14 May to 2 August 2026 at IN-DEPENDANCE by IBASHO in Antwerp. The vernissage will take place on Thursday 14 May (Ascension Day) from 12:00 to 21:00, coinciding with the start of Antwerp Art Weekend (14–17 May).

On 15 and 16 May at 14:00, an artist talk with Christopher Thomas will take place, followed by a signing of his book Bittersweet. The artist book (self-published, €150) will be available at the gallery and via the online bookshop.

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