Beaded spirals pirouette through the air at Galerie Perrotin’s freshly renovated space in the landmark Beckenstein building at 130 Orchard Street in New York, once a fabric factory and now converted into five floors for programming directed by Peggy Leboeuf and Emmanuel Perrotin. Suspended as the artworks are, their stilled movement reminds you of a dancer, a whirling mobile — or, as the titles suggest, a tornado. Jean-Michel Othoniel’s elemental, monochrome pearls of aluminium, mirrored glass and stainless steel, are part of the artist’s latest solo exhibition, ‘Dark Matters’, his idea of a perfect storm.
Over a 20-year career, the French artist has become known for his mastery of glass. Elsewhere in the gallery, glass brick ‘stonewalls’ in brilliant turquoise and warm amber glisten and shine – a grotto even awaits the viewer, complete with a fountain. The works are the result of a trip to Firozabad, India, to research glassmaking techniques, observing local craftsmen.
Othoniel’s Precious Stonewalls – one of them stretching to 17 metres across the gallery and looking as though you could dive into it – are experiments in radical architecture, made with glass brought back from India and arranged to refer to the stacks of bricks the artist observed piled up on roadsides in India. Their titles, meanwhile, are also a nod to the Stonewall riots on Christopher Street in 1969, a protest for LGBT rights.
Installation view of ‘Dark Matters’ by Jean-Michel Othoniel at Galerie Perrotin, New York.
A further series of knots paintings and sculptures are the result of a collaboration between the artist and mathematician Aubin Arroyo. Arroyo explains the interest in knot theory: ‘Up until today, mathematicians have cataloged more than one and a half million different knots, starting from the simplest one towards the more complicated, and the catalogue is still growing.’
Appealing in both their form and their symbolism, Othoniel’s paintings and sculptures visualise the infinite complexity of the theoretical space. Other inspirations steer from surrealism through to psychoanalysis to American artist James Lee Byars, known for his flummoxing performance pieces.
It might all be getting a bit cerebral – but Othoniel is equally invested in the beauty of things, even if it is a petulant kind of beauty. The violent force of both humans and nature comes together in ‘Dark Matters’, conveyed by the coldness and contradiction of the materials, and the way the works sharply interrupt the white space. Propelled by the ‘desire for violent, minimal and telluric enchantment, contrasted today with the sorrow of the world’, the exhibition is itself a tough knot to untangle, but sublimely tied.
Installation view of ‘Dark Matters’ by Jean-Michel Othoniel at Galerie Perrotin, New York.
Installation view of ‘Dark Matters’ by Jean-Michel Othoniel at Galerie Perrotin, New York.
Installation view of ‘Dark Matters’ by Jean-Michel Othoniel at Galerie Perrotin, New York.
Installation view of ‘Dark Matters’ by Jean-Michel Othoniel at Galerie Perrotin, New York.
Installation view of ‘Dark Matters’ by Jean-Michel Othoniel at Galerie Perrotin, New York.
Precious Stonewall, 2014, by Jean-Michel Othoniel, mirrored Indian glass, wood, stainless steel.
The façade of the Beckenstein building in New York, where Galerie Perrotin’s Lower East Side space is located.
INFORMATION
‘Dark Matters’ is on view until 15 April. For more information, visit the Galerie Perrotin website
ADDRESS
Galerie Perrotin
130 Orchard Street
New York
-
Designer Marta de la Rica’s elegant Madrid studio is full of perfectly-pitched contradictionsThe studio, or ‘the laboratory’ as de la Rica and her team call it, plays with colour, texture and scale in eminently rewarding ways
-
‘Nothing just because it’s beautiful’: Performance artist Marina Abramović on turning her hand to furniture designMarina Abramović has no qualms about describing her segue into design as a ‘domestication’. But, argues the ‘grandmother of performance art’ as she unveils a collection of chairs, something doesn’t have to be provocative to be meaningful
-
A local’s guide to Los Angeles by defiant artist Fawn RogersOregon-born, LA-based artist Fawn Rogers gives us a personal tour of her adopted city as it hosts its sixth edition of Frieze
-
20 years on, ‘The Gates’ makes a digital return to Central ParkThe 2005 installation ‘The Gates’ by Christo and Jeanne-Claude marks its 20th anniversary with a digital comeback, relived through the lens of your phone
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any otherGia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
-
‘American Photography’: centuries-spanning show reveals timely truthsAt the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Europe’s first major survey of American photography reveals the contradictions and complexities that have long defined this world superpower
-
‘The Black woman endures a gravity unlike any other’: Pharrell Williams explores diverse interpretations of femininity in ParisPharrell Williams returns to Perrotin gallery in Paris with a new group show which serves as an homage to Black women
-
Miami’s new Museum of Sex is a beacon of open discourseThe Miami outpost of the cult New York destination opened last year, and continues its legacy of presenting and celebrating human sexuality
-
Sundance Film Festival 2025: The films we can't wait to watchSundance Film Festival, which runs 23 January - 2 February, has long been considered a hub of cinematic innovation. These are the ones to watch from this year’s premieres
-
What is RedNote? Inside the social media app drawing American users ahead of the US TikTok banDownloads of the Chinese-owned platform have spiked as US users look for an alternative to TikTok, which faces a ban on national security grounds. What is Rednote, and what are the implications of its ascent?
-
Architecture and the new world: The Brutalist reframes the American dreamBrady Corbet’s third feature film, The Brutalist, demonstrates how violence is a building block for ideology
