Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Glass Tornado Touches Down at Perrotin’s Newly Unveiled Gallery

“JEAN-MICHEL OTHONIEL: DARK MATTERS”

Perrotin New York, through Sunday, April 15

What the Gallery Says: “The artist’s latest creations in New York are characterized by the figure of the oxymoron, bringing together the monumental and the fragile, the austere and the marvelous, minimalism, and baroque. All of the elements brought into play—glass, mirror, metal, ink, white gold—pertain to this desire for violent, minimal, and telluric enchantment, contrasted today with the sorrow of the world.”

Why It’s Worth a Look: Emmanuel Perrotin has finally unveiled the upper two floors of his new Lower East Side gallery at 130 Orchard Street, formerly home to fabric company S. Beckenstein, whose painted signs still grace the facade of the historic 1902 building. The 20-foot-tall ceilings offer ample space for Othoniel’s massive sculptures, crafted with mathematical precision. Cascading spirals of polished metal and mirrored glass beads are magically suspended from above, like an otherworldly tornado frozen in time.

The show also includes new paintings and giant walls of glass bricks, a body of work begun in 2012 based on the local traditions of the glass-makers of Firozabad, India. There’s a yellow brick road on the gallery floor, Precious Stonewall, meant as a reference to the death of LGBTQ icon Judy Garland and New York’s 1969 Stonewall riots, and an iridescent walled-in space, Grotta Azzurra. Looking ahead, the artist is talking about doing an entire room or building in the medium.

What It Looks Like: 

Installation view of “Jean-Michel Othoniel: Dark Matters” at Perrotin New York. Photo by Guillaume Sixxarell, courtesy of Perrotin.

Jean-Michel Othoniel, Black Tornado (2016). Photo by Claire Dorn, courtesy of Perrotin. ©Othoniel/ADAGP Paris, 2018.

Installation view of “Jean-Michel Othoniel: Dark Matters” at Perrotin New York. Photo by Guillaume Sixxarell, courtesy of Perrotin.

Jean-Michel Othoniel, Black Lotus (2015). Photo by Claire Dorn, courtesy of Perrotin. ©Othoniel/ADAGP Paris, 2018.

Jean-Michel Othoniel, The Knot of Shame (2016). Photo by Claire Dorn, courtesy of Perrotin. ©Othoniel/ADAGP Paris, 2018.

Installation view of “Jean-Michel Othoniel: Dark Matters” at Perrotin New York. Photo by Guillaume Sixxarell, courtesy of Perrotin.

Installation view of “Jean-Michel Othoniel: Dark Matters” at Perrotin New York. Photo by Guillaume Sixxarell, courtesy of Perrotin.

Jean-Michel Othoniel, Grotta Azzura (2017). Photo by Claire Dorn, courtesy of Perrotin. ©Othoniel/ADAGP Paris, 2018.

Jean-Michel Othoniel, Precious Stonewall (2014). Photo by Claire Dorn, courtesy of Perrotin. ©Othoniel/ADAGP Paris, 2018.

“Jean-Michel Othoniel: Dark Matters” is on view through April 15 at Perrotin New York, 130 Orchard Street, New York.