Exhibitions

Perrotin Shanghai is presenting a solo exhibition of new works by Jean-Michel Othoniel, marking his first exhibition in Shanghai. Using his signature module of geometric elements, such as bricks or beads, Othoniel creates significant glass sculptures that range from small-scale to monumental. For this exhibition, he will present a new series of suspended necklace sculptures alongside one new work in his brick series, titled Precious Stonewall. Taken together, these signature works provide an introduction of Othoniel’s artistic practice to Shanghai.

"Îles Singulières", a project specially created for the new space designed by Renzo Piano, reaffirms Othoniel’s interest in contemporary architecture. Minimal and abstract sculptures in blue and silver mirrored bricks will reflect the pure volumes of the building creating new architectures.
The minimal and abstract sculptures in blue, silver mirror brick will marry the pure volumes of the building, creating thus others architectures. An infinite line of glass and steel brick will accompany yhe viewer along the path to a lonely and mysterious island.

From June to October 2019, The Néstor Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK) in Buenos Aires presents the exhibition “Nudos Salvajes” (Wild Knots), which brings together, for the first time, Jean-Michel Othoniel’s series of knot sculptures, whose beads in mirrored glass engage in a dialogue with the mathematical theory of wild knots. The exhibition, inspired by the exchange of ideas between the French artist and Mexican mathematician Aubin Arroyo, invites visitors to explore the connections between contemporary art and the universe of mathematics. Under the sponsorship of the French mathematician Cédric Villani, the exhibition “Nudos Salvajes” will be accompanied by a French Argentinian symposium on mathematics, organized by the CCK and the Institut Français in Argentina.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Pyramid, the Louvre Museum invites the artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, who proposes an original creation inspired by a detail of a painting by Rubens, declined in six paintings and a book.

The Rose du Louvre, installation in the Puget courtyard
From May 24, 2019 to February 24, 2020, Jean-Michel Othoniel presents in the Puget courtyard, among the masterpieces of garden statuary of the 17th and 18th centuries, an installation composed of six original paintings made of ink and white gold leaf. To create these paintings, the artist was inspired by the rose painted by Rubens in The Marriage of Mary of Medici and Henry IV (1621-1625).

This rose is for Jean-Michel Othoniel the emblematic flower of the museum. Queen among flowers, triumphant, symbol of power and passion, this rose painted with great freedom tells us about the destiny of a woman, her beauty, her love stronger than death, the history of France, the history of the museum. Through this installation, Jean-Michel Othoniel invites the visitors to a dreamlike walk combining sculptures, herbarium, paintings and garden.

L’Herbier Merveilleux, co-edition Louvre Museum / Actes Sud
This book collects notes that Jean-Michel Othoniel gleaned on the secret language of flowers and their symbolism. It reveals their hidden meaning by telling their stories and mythologies. The artist returns to his first love. During his years of studies he was a day and night guard at the Louvre. During the year 2018, he again explored the empty rooms of the largest museum in the world to pick in the eight departments the flowers painted, carved, drawn, embroidered, glazed hiding the masterpieces of the collection. He thus composed a new herbarium. In the museum, Othoniel photographed the flowers represented in sculptures, tapestries, frescoes, architectural elements, furniture and paintings. Among the details of flowers appear the thistle in the self-portrait painted by Durer, the apple resting on the stool in The Lock of Fragonard, the peony in the unbuttoned shirt of the girl in the broken jug of Greuze or the palm on the arm of Saint Apolline by Zurbarán ...

Video by Nikolaï Saoulski

Jean-Michel Othoniel presents in Paris a new body of work including monumental sculptures and large scale installations created with his new iconic module, the mirror brick. The bricks allow the artist to go further in the creation of large scale artworks such as his Big Wave. Othoniel creates pieces that go beyond the idea of sculpture, to become real glass and metal architectures like walls, roads, grottos and agoras. Works with such a scale, that people will be able to enter them, to experiment there spaces of freedom.

The news shows us daily that conditions for women around the world are still quite fragile.
Progress in France can mask setbacks in the wake of wars and the rise of extremism elsewhere.
In 2019, the project “Artistes à la Une - Togeth’Her” will mobilize a number of international
artists with their depictions of exceptional women. Borrowing the format of Vogue Paris magazine,
the selected artists will create, using their chosen techniques, portraits of iconic women they
find inspiring. The faces of these feminine evocations will be compatible with the elegant spirit
that characterizes Vogue, that of women who, today and yesterday, participate in the culture of
their time, who dare to break boundaries, who transform the way we see the world with style,
audacity and creativity. The artists’ original works produce will be exhibited at the Hôtel de la
Monnaie (the Paris Mint) and sold by the Christie’s auction house to benefit the global programs
of UN Women and its national entity, the National Committee for UN Women in France (www.
onufemmes.fr), which is dedicated to promoting gender equality and to combating violence
against women around the world.
For his participation, Jean-Michel Othoniel chose to collaborate with the dancer Marie-Agnès
Gillot and the photographer Christian Lartillot, creating a dreamlike cover design that immortalizes
the prima ballerina’s performance inside his enormous wave sculpture of glass bricks.