Jean-Michel Othoniel
Born in 1964, Jean-Michel Othoniel is one of France's most internationally acclaimed artists. Favoring materials with poetic and sensitive properties, in the early 1990s the artist began creating works in wax and sulfur, which were presented by Jan Hoet at Documenta in Kassel in 1992.
The following year, the introduction of glass marked a real turning point in his work. Working with Murano's finest craftsmen, he explored the properties of this material, which became his signature. The delicacy of glass and the subtlety of its colors are part of the artist's vast project: to poeticize and re-enchant the world.
In 1996, he became a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome. From this point onwards, he began to create a dialogue between his works and the landscape, hanging giant necklaces in the gardens of Villa Medici, from the trees of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection's Venetian garden (1997), and from the Alhambra and Generalife in Granada (1999). His works, a kind of forbidden fruit, live and integrate into the landscape and foliage, like organic outgrowths absorbing shadow and diffracting light.
In 2000, Jean-Michel Othoniel responded for the first time to a public commission and, a century after Hector Guimard, transformed the Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre metro station in Paris into the Kiosque des Noctambules: a double crown of glass and aluminum conceals a bench, designed for chance encounters in the sleepy city. Presented at Private Choice, his Lampes perles echo this iconic creation.
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Biography
Jean-Michel Othoniel was born in Saint-Etienne in 1964. He lives and works in Paris. His works are held in the world's leading contemporary art museums, foundations and private collections.
He began his career in the 1980s, experimenting with multiple media (drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, writing and performance) and focusing on materials with poetic and sensitive properties.
Jean-Michel Othoniel has been using glass since 1993, and it was during his residency at Villa Medici (1996) that he began to create a dialogue between his works and the landscape, and to play with light. Working with the finest Murano craftsmen, glass has become his signature material. Delicate glass and subtle colors.
In 2000, a century after Hector Guimard, he created the Kiosque des Noctambules, transforming the Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre station.
In 2004, the Musée du Louvre invited her to exhibit as part of the "Contrepoint" exhibition. This was the opportunity to create her first self-supporting necklaces, including Rivière Blanche, acquired by the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Today, his work has taken on an architectural dimension. Jean-Michel Othoniel is regularly invited to create works in situ, in dialogue with both historic sites and contemporary architecture. On numerous occasions, he has created sculptures for Peter Marino and Jean Nouvel.
TRAINING
- 1996 / Residence at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
- 1983 - 1988 /Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts, Cergy-Pontoise, France
AWARDS, DISTINCTIONS AND RESIDENCIES
- 2018 / Academician in the Sculpture section, elected by the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Institut de France, France
- 2011 / Residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
- 2009 / Mission in India, French Institute
- 2006 / Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France
- 2001 / Residence in Miami, United States
- 1999 / Residency at PICA, Portland, USA
- 1996 / Residence at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
- 1992 - 1993 / Winner of the Villa Médicis Hors-les-Murs, Madrid, Spain
- 1990 - 1993 / Centre International de Recherche sur le Verre et les Arts plastiques (CIRVA), Marseille, France
- 1989 / Residency at the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris, France
- 1988 / Residence at Villa Saint-Clair, Sète, France
- 1986 / "Springboard Prize", Musée du Donjon, Niort, France