Folded Map 2018 Exhibition
Tonika Johnson’s Folded Map project debuted in 2018 as an exhibition at the Loyola University Museum of Art from July to October. The multi-media exhibition included photos of address pairs, portraits of residents who came to be known as "map twins," video interviews of the map twins meeting eachother and having a conversation plus a large-scale Chicago map installation by architect and urban planner Paola Aguirre. Here is a virtual tour of the exhibition.
Folded Map – a solo exhibition of photographs and video by Tonika Johnson at Loyola University Museum of Art from July 3 – October 20, 2018. Tonika Lewis Johnson’s ongoing Folded Map project connects residents who live at corresponding addresses in the North and South Side neighborhoods of Chicago. By documenting architectural aspects of the neighborhoods and conversations between residents, Johnson demonstrates how a city of renowned institutions and robust tourism is also a city that struggles with issues of racial inequality and segregation.
PRESS – https://abc7chicago.com/society/folded-map-project-capturing-the-division-of-the-city/4154771/
Everyday Englewood – Preceding Tonika's Folded Map exhibit at Loyola University Museum of Art, was her solo exhibition of photographs titled "Everyday Englewood," from Feb. 6th – June 2nd, 2018. Tonika Lewis Johnson's "Everyday Englewood," depicts the Englewood community in which she was raised, assertively challenging ongoing assumptions in her love letter to Chicago. Her photographs assert the divinity of regular people, the people we pass on the street, sit next to on the bus, see in the grocery store and affirm the sanctity of everyday Black existence even while unveiling the cosmology that guides and informs it.
PRESS – http://www.fox32chicago.com/mornings/234976236-video
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