Published by Perrotin, 2013
Hardcover, 254 pages
21.7 x 27.7 cm | 8.5 x 11 in
English and Chinese texts, quotes in French
Interview with Léa Chauvel-Levy
Johan Creten has been working on the move for twenty-five years, from Mexico to Rome, from Miami to Amsterdam, and most recently to Paris. He started working with clay in the late 1980s, when the medium was still seen as taboo in the art world: earth was deemed dirty and damp, while the creator was viewed as a usurper of God, transgressing religious interdicts. Yet clay represents the “Earth Mother,” linking the sacred to the profane. Creten is one of the earliest exponents of using clay in the context of contemporary art and is considered, alongside Thomas Schütte and Lucio Fontana, to be a pioneer in the revival of modern ceramics, who continues to influence the next generation of artists.