Jean-Michel OTHONIEL
Born in 1964, Jean-Michel Othoniel is one of the most internationally recognized French artists. Favoring materials with poetic and sensitive properties, the artist began in the early 1990s by creating works in wax or sulfur, which were presented as early as 1992 by Jan Hoet at the Documenta in Kassel.
The following year, the introduction of glass marked a real turning point in his work. Collaborating with the best artisans in Murano, he explored the properties of this material, which became his signature from then on. The delicacy of the glass and the subtlety of its colors contribute to the artist's vast project: to poeticize and re-enchant the world.
In 1996, he was a resident at the Villa Médicis in Rome. It was from this moment that he began to create a dialogue between his works and the landscape, suspending giant necklaces in the gardens of the Villa Médicis, on the trees of the Venetian garden of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (1997), as well as at the Alhambra and the Generalife in Granada (1999). His works, like forbidden fruits, live and integrate into the landscape, into the foliage, like so many organic outgrowths absorbing the shade and diffracting the light.
In 2000, Jean-Michel Othoniel responded for the first time to a public commission and, a century after Hector Guimard, transformed the Parisian metro station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre into Kiosque des Noctambules: a double crown of glass and aluminum conceals a bench, intended for chance encounters in the sleeping city. Presented at Private Choice, his Lampes perles echo this iconic creation.
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Biography
Jean-Michel Othoniel was born in 1964 in Saint-Etienne. He lives and works in Paris. His works are held in the most important contemporary art museums, foundations and private collections in the world.
He began his career in the 1980s, working in a variety of media (drawing, sculpture, installation, photography, writing and performance) and favouring materials with poetic and sensitive properties.
Jean-Michel Othoniel has been using glass since 1993, and it was during his residency at the Villa Medici (1996) that he began to engage his works with the landscape and play with light. Working with the finest Murano craftsmen, glass became his signature material, celebrated for its delicacy and subtle colours.
In 2000, a century after Hector Guimard, he created the Kiosque des Noctambules, transforming the Palais-Royal – Musée du Louvre metro station.
In 2004, the Louvre Museum invited him to exhibit as part of the « Contrepoint » exhibition. This was an opportunity to create his first self-supporting necklaces, including Rivière Blanche, which was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris.
His works today take on an architectural dimension. Jean-Michel Othoniel is regularly invited to create in situ works, in dialogue with both historical sites and contemporary architecture. He has created sculptures for Peter Marino and Jean Nouvel on many occasions.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- 1996 / Residency 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 to India, French Institute
- 2006 / Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, France
- 2001 / Residency in Miami, USA
- 1999 / Residency at PICA, Portland, USA
- 1996 / Residency at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy
- 1992 – 1993 / Laureate of the Villa Medici Hors-les-Murs, Madrid, Spain
- 1990 – 1993 / International Center for Research on Glass and Visual Arts (CIRVA), Marseille, France
- 1989 / Residency at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris, France
- 1988 / Residency at Villa Saint-Clair, Sète, France
- 1986 / « Prix Tremplin », Musée du Donjon, Niort, France