Prepare to be enchanted by Othoniel's art

"The Enchantment," a solo exhibition by artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, is on show at Long Museum West Bund.

The exhibition brings together two of his most iconic series — the signature beads and bricks spanning from 2012 to the present.

These works are at once geometrical abstractions and luminous, recognizable objects that are delightful and luxurious to behold.

Othoniel's artworks exquisitely handcrafted by skilled artisans in Italy and India, and later assembled with the help of engineers in his Paris studio, follow the discipline of modern abstraction.

His monumental glass beads are strung into loops too large to wear, yet the forms still evoke the curve of the invisible neck.

Up close, each bead reveals subtle baroque distortions, its unique shape bearing the imprint of the glassblower's breath and touch. These luminous works bathe the Brutalist architecture of the Long Museum with an ethereal glow. The light they emit is cool and dreamlike, reminiscent of nocturnal visions.

Born in 1964 in Saint-Étienne, France, Othoniel now lives and works in Paris. His aesthetics revolves around the notion of emotional geometry. Through the repetition of modular elements such as bricks or his signature beads, the artist creates jewelry-like sculptures whose relationship to the human scale ranges from intimacy to monumentality.

The idea of glass bricks emerged during his travels to India. In India, the artist observed piles of bricks stacked by the roadside and saw in them projections of people's hopes and dreams.

From this, he distilled a universal form he later called "emotional geometry," in order to place the people who are the source of his inspiration on the center stage.

Working in glass, he introduces subtle variations to each stacked brick, a ripple effect that casts a sombre and mysterious aura.

Monumental yet delicate, baroque yet minimal, poetic yet political, his contemplative forms have the power to reconcile opposites.

If you go:

Date: Through September 7, 10am-5:30pm, from Tuesday to Thursday, 10am-8pm, from Friday to Sunday

Address: 3398 Longteng Avenue

Admission: 100 yuan