Perrotin Tokyo is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, marking his first gallery presentation in Japan. On view is a new series of glass sculptures and gold leaf paintings that have never been seen before.
ペロタン東京はこのたび、フランス人アーティスト、ジャン＝ミシェル・オトニエルによる新作の個展を開催いたします。同アーティストの日本でのギャラリー展は今回が初となります。本展では、初公開となる新シリーズであるガラスの立体作品や、金箔を用いた絵画作品が展示されます。
By naming his exhibition Yumeji, Othoniel shows his romantic vision of the world and how such simple things as flowers are keys to emotions, a dream road to fantasies and imagination. Othoniel recreates inside the gallery space an enclosed forbidden garden of chrysanthemums, a dream world he named Yumeji in Japanese (– translated as Dream Road).
自身の展覧会を「夢路」と名付けることで、オトニエルはそのロマンチックな世界観を覗かせるとともに、感情への鍵となるのは花のような素朴なものであることや、それが空想と想像への«夢の路»であることを指し示しています。オトニエルはペロタンのギャラリー内に自身が「夢路」と名付けた夢の世界である、菊の花が咲く閉ざされた禁断の園を再現するのです。
Othoniel continues his exploration of nature in a contemplative approach by presenting new series of abstract and sensuous artworks: the Kiku, inspired by the chrysanthemum flower and its symbolism in ancient Japanese culture.
オトニエルは静観的なアプローチで自然の探究を続けており、抽象的で五感に訴えかける作品を提示します。《Kiku》は菊花や、日本の古典文化における菊の象徴的意味にインスピレーションを得た作品です。
Mounted on pedestals in a meticulous composition of colors, an installation of elegant sculptures of blossoms recalls the overwhelming floral displays the artist encountered during his numerous visits at the Bunkyo Chrysanthemum Festival. The three paintings on gold leaf are shown in a separate room.
ギャラリーのメインスペースに設置された台座上に展示されるのは、注意深く選ばれた色彩をまとう優雅な彫刻作品です。このインスタレーションは、オトニエルが幾度となく訪問した「文京菊まつり」にて見つけた圧倒的な展示を想起させます。別室では、金箔に描かれた絵画作品3点が展示されます。
The Kiku sculptures are organic in form, ambiguous, halfway between plants and knots, referring also to love and the art of knot-tying in Japanese culture. Offering an alluring visual experience consistent in the artist’s sculptural work, the enigmatic forms of these mirrored knots recall the fatal seductiveness of a trap, while the bright and shimmering hues of the glass are as eye-catching.
立体作品《Kiku》の形状は有機的かつ曖昧で、植物と«結び目»の中間にあり、愛や、日本文化における«結び»の伝統美をも参考にしています。本作はオトニエルの立体作品に一貫した魅惑的な視覚体験を提供するとともに、鏡面の結び目の謎めいた形状は、その眩しく光り輝くガラスの色彩が観る者の目を奪うように、«罠»の宿命的な誘惑性を思い出させるでしょう。
The artist continues playing with a sense of contrast in his large-format paintings on canvas, almost abstract images made in black ink on layers of white gold leaf. These gigantic hallucinative shadows of flowers painted by Othoniel refer to a more anxious vision of the world. Contrary to the prismatic garden shown in the main space of the gallery, these dark calligraphic works bring the viewer into pure abstraction and contemplation. The Kiku paintings show the artist’s fondness for the art of drawing that is at the very core of his practice since the beginning of his career.
大型のキャンバスを用いた絵画作品では、白金箔の層の上に黒インクで抽象的なイメージを描き、明暗の感覚で遊んでいる様子が見受けられます。また、オトニエルが描く巨大で幻覚のような花の影は、この世界を案ずる視点にも言及しています。ギャラリーのメインスペースに展示された眩しく光り輝く園に相反する、これらの暗く抽象的なカリグラフィーは、観る者を純粋な抽象と熟考の世界へと誘います。絵画作品《Kiku》は、オトニエルが作家活動開始当初より実践の中核とし続ける«ドローイングへの愛情»を示し表す作品となっています。
The chrysanthemum is one of the most important and symbolic flowers in Japan. Known as the flower that blooms during autumn as winter approaches, it has come to be a symbol of longevity and rejuvenation. I very much like this idea of a flower blooming against all odds, fighting to marvel while its surroundings have already began to fall asleep. It is one of the last blooming flowers of the year.
菊の花は日本で最も重要で象徴的な花のひとつだといわれています。忍び寄る冬もよそに、秋に咲く花として知られ、長寿と若返りの象徴となりました。周囲がすでに眠りにつき始めているにも関わらず、驚異的に闘い,あらゆる困難を物ともせず咲く花という考え方をとても気に入っています。一年の間で最も遅く咲く花のひとつです。
Born in 1964 in Saint-Étienne, France
Lives and works in Paris, France
Jean-Michel Othoniel’s enchanting aesthetics revolves around the notion of emotional geometry. Through the repetition of modular elements such as bricks or his signature beads, he creates exquisite jewelry-like sculptures whose relationship to the human scale ranges from intimacy to monumentality. His predilection for materials with reversible and often reflective properties—particularly blown glass, which has been the hallmark of his practice since the early 1990s—relates to the deeply equivocal nature of his art. Monumental yet delicate, baroque yet minimal, poetic yet political, his contemplative forms, like oxymorons, have the power to reconcile opposites. While his dedication to site-specific commissions for public spaces has led some of his work to take an almost architectural turn, Othoniel’s holistic sensibility compares to fêng shui, or the art of harmonizing people with their environment, allowing viewers to inhabit his world through reflection and motion.
More about the artist
