Jean-Michel Othoniel

Jean-Michel Othoniel is a contemporary artist born in 1964 in Saint-Etienne (France). He lives and works in Paris.Jean-Michel Othoniel is an artist of Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami & Paris

Biography

An artist who has a passion for all sorts of metamorphoses, sublimations and transmutations, Jean-Michel Othoniel has a predilection for materials with reversible properties. Othoniel first gained recognition with a series of sculptures made of sulfur, exhibited at Documenta IX in Kassel in 1992.

In 1994, he participated in the exhibition Féminin/Masculin at the Pompidou Center in Paris, with an installation entitled My Beautiful Closet, a mise-en-scène of dancers filmed in the darkness of a closet.

In 1993, Jean-Michel Othoniel introduced glass into his work and began to explore its properties. Transformations, mutations of materials, and rites of passage from one state to another echo an essential rite in the artist’s work: that of journeys and memory.

The notion of wound or injury is at the heart of his work. In 1997, Othoniel created Collier Cicatrice, a small necklace made of red glass that the artist offers to whoever wants to wear it with pride. In 1996, Othoniel hung gigantic necklaces in the bamboo gardens of the Villa Medici in Rome, and later in the trees of the Venetian garden of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (1997), and at the Alhambra and Generalife, in Granada (1999). Similar to a forbidden fruit, the necklace has a life in and of itself: it merges into the landscape and the leaves, like organic outgrowths absorbing shadows and diffracting light.

In 2000, a century after Hector Guimard, Jean-Michel Othoniel transformed the Paris metro station Palais Royal-Musée du Louvre into the Kiosque des Noctambules: two crowns made of glass and aluminum conceal a bench designed for chance encounters in the sleepy city.

In 2003, Jean-Michel Othoniel conceived Crystal Palace for the Cartier Foundation in Paris and for MOCA in Miami. For Crystal Palace, he asked glassblowers in Venice and at Marseille’s CIRVA to create forms that would ultimately become enigmatic sculptures standing between jewelry, architecture and erotic objects.

In December 2004, at the Théâtre de la Ville in Rochefort and later at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Jean-Michel Othoniel staged Le Petit Théâtre de Peau d’Ane, an installation composed of four lacquered wooden sideboards, surmounted by thirty-five glass-filled models, and as many globes or huge vertugadins embroidered with gold and sequins. This installation was conceived as a decor for the tiny puppets that Pierre Loti used to play with as a child, and that Othoniel discovered in the house of this famous French writer.

Also in 2004, for the exhibition Contrepoint at the Louvre Museum, Jean-Michel Othoniel set his works in the museum’s spectacular Mesopotamian rooms. His monumental glass and aluminum sculptures, which are always created in relation to the places in which they are shown, acquire a timeless and peaceful dimension. The great white river of pearls adorned with nipples, which was purchased by the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, is now on view in the museum’s new collection display.

For the Unlimited Section at Art Basel 2005, Jean-Michel Othoniel showed The Boat of Tears in a pool located in front of the fair. The artist, whose works often combine the political and the intimate, salvaged a boat built by Cuban boat people and abandoned on the shores of Miami and used it as a basis for his work. A crown, chains and necklaces made of colored glass taper down into giant tears of clear crystal. The sculpture floats on the water like a ghost ship, loaded with tears of suffering and joy, overflowing with memories and covered by festive ornaments.

The artist has progressively built up a world based on ultimate freedom and the acceptance of the reversible, a world characterizing his personality. His work takes on a variety of forms: drawings, sculptures, photographs, narratives, choreography and video. His streamlined works are steeped in poetry and eroticism.

Solo Shows

2008
* Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Miami
* Sikkema Jenkins & Co, New York

2007
* "Les Larmes de Couleurs" (public commission), Lycée Arthur Rimbaud, Amiens, France
* "Le Confident", (public commission), Square Lépine, Nice, France
* "Le Rideau d’Or", Chanel, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles,
* "Le Petit Théâtre de Peau d’Âne", Palais de Dolmabahçe, X° Biennale d’Istanbul, Turkey
* "Le Coffre à Secrets", Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, France

2006
* "Peggy's necklace", Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
* "Dessins" Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris, France
* "Le Collier Blanc", permanent installation, Chanel, Hong Kong, Japon
* "Epée de l'Académicien de M. Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière", installation in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

2005
* "Le Petit Théâtre de Peau d’Ane", Théâtre du Chatelet, Paris
* "Candélabres", permanent installation, Villa Amistà, Vérone, Italy

2004
* "House of Glass", MOCA, Miami, USA
* "Le petit théatre de Peau d'âne», Othoniel/Loti, Maison Pierre Loti et Théatre de la coupe d'or, Rochefort, France.
* "Le Petit Théâtre de Peau d’Ane", Musée-Atelier département du verre de Sars-Poterie, Lille, France

2003
* "Black is beautiful", Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris (with Sophie Calle)
* "Lagrimas", Musée d'art moderne de Saint-Etienne, France
* "L'arbre aux colliers", permanent installation in the sculpture garden Sidney Besthoff, New Orleans Museum of Modern Art, La Nouvelle Orléans, USA
* "La Tombe de Jean Lafont", permanent installation, Le Cailar, France
* "Crystal Palace", Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris
* "Fragile", FRAC Champagne Ardenne, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

2002
* "Pluie d'Or", Sala la Gallera, Valencia, Spain
* "Lagrimas", Museo del Vidrio, Monterrey, Mexico

2001
* "Collier", Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium
* "Parade", Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, La Nouvelle Orléans, USA
* "La fontaine du Plaisir et des Larmes", Galerie Pièce Unique, Paris

2000
* "Le Kiosque des Noctambules", permanent installation at the Métro Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre, Place Colette, Paris
* "Jean-Michel Othoniel", dutacion de Granada, Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, Grenada, Spain

1999
* "A shadow in your Window", Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
* "Les Amants Suspendus", Galerie Clara Rainhorn, Bruxelles, Belgium
* "Trésor", Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
* California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, USA
* "Jean-Michel Othoniel", Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain

1998
* ARCO, Galerie Barbara Farber, Madrid
* "PS1", Contemporary Art Center, New-York
* Yves Saint Laurent 88 wooster, New York
* Sculpture in the Dark, "La Folle Journée du Piano", Hippodrome du Douai, France

1997
* Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
* Musée des Art Décoratifs, Palais du Louvre, Paris, France
* Galerie Senda, Barcelona, Spain

1996
* "The Wishing Wall", Galerie Arndt & Partner, Berlin

1995
* Gramercy Park Hotel, Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, New York
* "XIe olympiades nationales de la chimie", Maison de la chimie, Paris
* "Scratch and Tits Paintings", Galerie Barbara Farber, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* "Le Ballet de l'Innommable", Proton ICA, Amsterdam, Netherlands
* "Les Innommables", Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris
* "Le Ballet de l'Innommable", (performance), Les Soirées Nomades, Fondation Cartier, Paris
* Villa Médicis, Rome, Italy
* "L.A. International", Viennial Invitational, Kohn-Turner Gallery, Los Angeles

1994
* "Il était beau comme la rencontre fortuite d'un parapluie et d'une machine à coudre sur une table de dissection", (film-performance), ARC, musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
* "Le Jaune de Soufre", Galerie d'Art de Mourenx, France

1993
* Galerie Nicole Klagsbrun, New York
* "Los Angeles International", Michael Kohn, Los Angeles
* Museo d'Historia de la Medicina de Catalunya, Galeria Senda, Barcelone, Spain
* "L'Hermaphrodite", Musée d'Art moderne de Saint-Étienne, France

1992
* Galerie des Arènes, Musée d'Art contemporain de la Ville de Nîmes, France
* "Rideau", installation on the stage of the theater of the Ferme Dubuisson, chorégraphie de Daniel Larrieu, Marne-la-Vallée, France
* Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris, France
* "Lauréat de la Villa Médicis Hors les Murs", Madrid, Spain

1991
* "Capotes !", Centre Genevois de Gravure Contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland

1990
* L'Instituto Francese di Napoli, Napoli, Italy
* "Das Lapidarium", Kunstlerhaus BethanienBerlin
* Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris

1989
* "A Travers le Grand Vide Critique", Galerie Antoine Candau, Paris
* "SAGA Grand Palais", Galerie Antoine Candau, Paris

1988
* "FIAC", Galerie Antoine Candau, Paris

Group Exhibitions

2008
* Sonsbeek Festival (Pays Bas)

2007
* "Territoires ré-enchantés" a seclection of FRAC Ile de France's collection, Maison des Arts Plastiques Rosa Bonheur, Chevilly-Larue, France
* "Art Projects : Aides", Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
* "L’Art dans la Ville avec le Tramway Nice Côte d’Azur", Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice, France
* "Dialogues Méditerranéens", Musée de L'Annonciade, St Tropez, France
* "Mining Glass", The Museum of Glass, Tacoma, WA, USA
* "1607 – 2007 : quatre siècles de création", inaugural exhibition of the Galerie des Gobelins, Paris
* "Quintette", French Institute, Ankara, Turkey
* "Métissage", Centre d’Art de la Maison Jim Thompson, Bangkok, Thailand

2006
* "Puppy Love : Puppies against cancer", Luminaires, Design District Showroom, Miami
* "Resonance", Frith Street Gallery, London
* "Les oubliés", FIAC2006, installation in the Tuileries garden, Paris
* "Peggy's Necklace", Nuit Blanche 2006, Crédit Municipal, Paris
* "Art'Fab"n Jardin de la Citadelle, Saint-Tropez, France
* "2 jours de nuit..." Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris VI° (homage to Raymond Hains)
* "Voilà !", Dialogues ! Christian Lacroix, Tel-Aviv, Israël
* "Collection of the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain", MOT, Tokyo
* "Essences Insensées", parcours Saint Germain des Prés, Paris
* "La Force de l'Art", Grand Palais, Paris, France
* "Métissages", Umleckoprumyslové Museum V Praze, Prague, Czech republic
* "Art Paris 06", Foire d'Art Moderne + Contemporain, Grand Palais, Paris
* "Art Contemporain", Artcurial (auction), Hôtel Dassault, Paris
* "Métissages", Musées du Costume et du Septennat et Musée de la civilisation celtique, Bibracte, France

2005
* Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris (opening of the new gallery space)
* "Le corps et le paysage", Donation Mario Prassinos, Saint Rémy de Provence, France
* "Métissage", Muse Metropolitano de Monterrey, Mexico; Museo del Arzobispado de Mexico, Mexico
* "L'Autre Métissage", La Paz, Bolivia
* "Art Basel", Miami Beach
* "Art Unlimited", Basel, Switzerland
* "Dialogues !" Christian Lacroix, Musée National des Beaux-Arts de Chine, Pékin, China; The James H.W. Thomson Fondation; Jim Thomson House, Bangkok, ThaÏlande
* "Miroirs d'artistes", Fondation Claude Pomidou, Paris

2004
* "Contrepoint (des artistes contemporains au Louvre)", Musée du Louvre, Paris
* "Plain Sight" Bloomberg Space, London
* Biennial, "Braunschweig Parcours", Braunschweig
* "Métissage", Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Oaxaca, Mexico; Galeria des Tatro PeonContreras de Merida, Mexico; Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon, France
* "Dialogues !", Musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle, Alençon, France
* "Au fil [des fils] , art contemporain et artisanat, Chateau d'Oiron, France
* FIAC, Paris
* "Ligne-Art", Fondation pour l'Art Contemporain, Toulouse, France
* "Festival Rayons Frais, les arts et la ville", Tours, France

2003
* "Métissage", Chateau de Vogué, Ardèche, France
* "Art Contemporain", Paris-Hôtel Dassault, vente aux enchères, Paris
* "Fragile - regards contemporains sur la salle de céramique", 20 ans des FRAC, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims, France
* "Meanwhile in the real world", Chapelle de la Sorbonne, Paris

2002
* "Art basel", Miami Beach, USA
* "Heart of Glass", Crafts Cousil Gallery, London
* "Métissages", Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Saint-Brieuc, France
* "Zoersel", Domein Kasteel van Halle - Gemeetehuis, Zoersel, Belgium
* "The Houston International Festival", Houston, Texas, USA

2001
* "Heart of glass", Queens Museum of Art, New York, USA
* "Ficçaô", Centre Culturel Banque Brésil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
* "Métissages", Musée de Louviers, France; Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru; Centro Cultural Recoleta (sala 4), Buenos Aires, Argentina
* "Le Cirva a 15 ans", Galerie d'Art du Conseil Général des Bouches-du-Rhônes, Aix-en-Provence, France
* FIAC 2001, Paris
* "Art Brussels 2001", Brussels, Belgium
* "Singuliers, Multiple (2)", Galerie Artem, Quimper, France

2000
* "Tongue in cheek", Fondation Deste, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Athens, Greece
* "Heaven", Tate Gallery Liverpool, UK
* Kwangju Biennal, South Korea
* "Métissages", Espace Saint-Jacques, Saint-Quentin Picardie, France
* "Narcisse blesssé, auoportrait contemporain 1970 - 2000" Passage de Retz, Paris
* ARCO 2000, Madrid, Spain
* Citadelle de Saint Florent exhibition, Haute Corse, France
* "Passage: New French Art", Nagoya City Art Museum, Japan; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Japan; Hiroshima City Museum of Modern Art, Japan
* ""Voilà", le monde dans la tête", Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France
* "La Ville/Le Jardin/La Mémoire", Villa Médicis, Académie de France à Rome, Italy
* "...rayons du sourire et de la volupté.", Hôtel de Soubise, Paris
* "La Vitrine", Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Paris-Cergy, France

1999
* "Cartographies", Saline Royale Arc et Senans, France
* "Heaven", Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf, Germany
* "Flashes", Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbone, Portugal
* "Doubles vides", Musée Barbier Muëller, Barcelona, Spain
* "Passage: new french art", Setagaya Art museum, Tokyo

1998
* "Dumbpop", Jerwood Fondation, London
* "Métissages", Musée du Luxembourg, Paris; Château-Musée d'Annecy, France
* ARCO, Madrid, Spain
* Fondation Joan Miro, Barcelona, Spain

1997
* "Amours", Fondation Cartier, Paris
* "Sous le manteau", Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris
* "Crossing Hawaii", Univerity Museum, Honolulu, USA
* "Beau comme un camion", Europride 97, Paris, France
* "Ici & maintenant", La Villette, Paris, France

1996
* "Opera Paese via di pietralata", Roma, Italy
* "Art dans la ville", Saint-Etienne, France
* Villa Médicis, Rome, Italie

1995
* National Museum of Contemporary art, Séoul, Corée du Sud- Fine Art Museum, Taïpei (Collection de la Fondation Cartier), Taïwan
* "Le corps de la mémoire", Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France
* "WAX", Nohra Haime Gallery, New York
* "Fiction non-fiction", Printed Matter, New York
* "Lx", Aldebaran, Espace Vigneron, France
* "Livres d'artistes et livres liturgiques aujourd'hui", Espace Georges Bernanos, Paris
* "Avant-garde Walk a Venezia", Venice, Italy
* "Féminin-Masculin, le sexe de l'art", Musée National d'Art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

1994
* "Of the human condition", Spiral/Vacoal Art Center, Tokyo
* "Gift", Inter Art Center, New York
* "Pour les chapelles de Vence", projet d'Yvon Lambert, Château de Villeneuve, Vence, France; Espace des Arts, Chalon-sur-Saône, France; CAPC, Bordeaux, France
* "Melancolia", Centre Régional d'Art contemporain de Clermont-Ferrand, France
* "Le Papillon sur la Roue", Palais des Arts, Toulouse, France
* "Aldebaran et la collection Yvon Lambert", Baillargues, France
* In khan Gallery, New York
* "Les centres d'art", La Criée, Rennes, France

1993
* "Jean-Michel Othoniel, David Renaud, Matthew Weinstein", Galerie Delsol, Paris
* "Azur", Fondation Cartier, Jouy-en-Josas, France
* "CAPS", Galeria Senda, Barcelona, Spain
* "Hôtel Carlton Palace, chambre 763", exhibition curated by Hans-ulrich Obrist, Hôtel Carlton Palace, Paris
* "L'Autre à Montevideo", Museo nacional de artes visuales, Montevideo, Uruguay
* "Des Livres", Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris
* "Présentation de la collection", Musée d'Art Contemporain de la Ville de Nîmes, France 1992
* "Regards Multiples", Galeries Contemporaines, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
* "Documenta IX", Kassel, Germany
* "Oh ! Cet écho !", Centre culturel Suisse, Paris
* Istanbul Biennial, Turquey
* FIAC 92, Paris

1991
* "Moules, Moules", Espace Paul Boyer, Sète, France
* "Veramante Falso", Rottonda di Via Besena, Milano, Italy
* "Echt Falsch " Villa Stück, Munich, Germany
* "Anni novanta", Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy
* "Too French", National Museum of Modern Art, Hong-Kong; Hara Museum, Tokyo
* "Les couleurs de l'argent", Musée de la Poste, Paris

1990
* "Total Novo", Palerme, Italy
* "Je viens de chez le charcutier" de Bernard Marcadé, Galerie Ghislaine Hussenot, Paris

1989
* CIMAL International, Valencia, Spain
* "Nos années 80", Fondation Cartier, Jouy-en-Josas, France
* "Arène/Rituels", Musée Bonnat, Bayonne, France

1988
* "Germination IV", Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany; De Beyerd, Centre d'Art Contemporain de Breda, Netherlands; Royal College of Art, London
* "Ateliers 88", ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris
* "Caserne Vauban", Villa-Saint-Clair, Sète, France

1987
* Salon de la jeune sculpture, Paris
* "Germination IV", Vieille Charité, Marseille, France

Public Collections

* Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
* Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
* Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
* Fondation Cartier Pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France
* New Orleans Museum of Modern Art, La Nouvelle-Orléans, USA
* Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris, France
* Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France
* New York Public Library, New York, USA
* FRAC Languedoc-Roussillon, France
* FRAC Aquitaine, France
* Musée d'Art moderne de Saint-Étienne, Saint-Etienne, France
* Chanel Hong Kong, Chine
* Chanel Los Angeles, USA
* Filmoteca universitaria de Barcelona, Barcelone, Espagne
* Métro de Toulouse, France
* Lycée Arthur Rimbaud, Amiens, France

Texts

What is glass? It is a transparency draped in reflections and stitched with metal, which the French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, born in Saint-Étienne in 1964, has adopted as the leitmotif for his work since 1993. It’s a hard, breakable material, or, to use a more scientific language, an amorphous, non-crystalline solid, which achieves a vitreous transformation, formed of silica and a flux, and discovered at the dawn of human history in the sands of the Middle East. For the artist, it is both a signature and a territory: the secret garden of his fantasies, a wonderland through the looking glass. Contemporary artistic processes are always based on the obsessive repetition of a theme or visual motif, like the storyteller who constantly repeats the same seminal event, or the musician who eternally sings the same refrain in order to dissect the content, and to use all its resources. The disappearance—or perhaps merely the eclipse—of traditional genres during the twentieth century certainly ushered in a collective vacuum that was taken over, rather unscrupulous, by the play of individual follies. Othoniel seized on glass as if it were an abandoned, undeveloped plot containing a conceptual treasure. The characteristic of this material is that is appears on the end of the spectrum of scales, from miniature to monumental. Today, as in the past, manipulation of scale is one of the fundamental operations at work in artistic creation. By enlarging and reducing, by altering the interplay of sizes and formats, the world of art incorporates one of the great production methods for the extraordinary. It is also a time machine, as human life is itself characterized by the growth of an individual’s body. If glass as a material has a particular shape, it is certainly the sphere, expressed in multiple ways: the ball, the bead, the drop. As soon as we speak of beads in art, the origins of the Baroque esthetic appear on the horizon—because the term baroco initially designated a bead with irregular and subtly irrational shapes. What makes a bead interesting from the viewpoint of shape is its universal form as well as the wealth of worlds it evokes—the world of jewels, which we drape on the surface of bodies to embellish them, decorate them or ennoble them; the world of chandeliers and lavish decorations arranged in a space for similar purposes. By enlarging jewels and reducing monuments, Othoniel’s installations highlight the confusion of the body in its relationship to the outside world. A body too large or too small. Giant or childlike. We sometimes hesitate between the sacred and the profane in defining this esthetic, which echoes across past centuries marked by liturgical rituals and religious processions, but also by the law of desire and its cohort, of sentimental fantasies. A treasure, fairy tale, enchantment. But let’s go back to glass: preciosity, fragility, transparency. Glass filters light and color like the stained-glass windows of cathedrals or the industrial plastics placed in front of nightclub spotlights. And finally, sexuality: transparency evokes both the passivity of consent, the elegiac beauty of adornment, the sumptuousness of seduction. A false modesty, also reflected in the evanescent sensuality of the artist’s drawings and watercolors."Émile Soulier"

Links

* [http://www.galerieperrotin.com/artiste_.php?id_=113&&nom_=Jean-Michel%20Othoniel&&dossier=Jean-Michel_Othoniel Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin]