Throughout his long and distinguished career, Othoniel has experimented with and expanded on the use of various alchemic materials, most notably sulphur and glass. Othoniel began working with suphur in the late 1980’s, which led him to embark on a research trip to the Aeolian Islands in 1989. There, he discovered obsidian, a naturally occurring black glass formed by cooling magma. This discovery was a turning point in his career, commencing a lifelong obsession with the sensual, yet unstable quality of glass. During his residency at Villa Medici in 1996, Othoniel began working with Muranese glassblowers, a pivotal experience that lead him to an inspirational discovery–the elegant appearance of glass is the product of a violent creative process. This sparked Othoniel’s interest in utilising the malleability and fragility of glass as a metaphor for the human body and mortality. Like the human body, glass is a beautiful substance that is easily wounded. Othoniel’s sculptures carry the trace of the glassblowers’ bodies as it is mixed, pulverised, and handled by them–in some cases, purposefully leaving the glass wounded and imperfect. Othoniel has been regularly invited to create artworks in situ, interacting with historical places as well as contemporary architecture. He has repeatedly collaborated with Peter Marino on sculptures for Chanel and Jean Nouvel. Othoniel’s sculptures have been presented in major institutions globally, including significant solo exhibitions at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; The Brooklyn Museum, New York; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.

Othoniel has pushed the boundaries of sculpture with his innovative glass works, authoring a body of work that expands the material’s metaphoric potential. In this exhibition, the main room of the gallery will be adorned with four hanging ‘Necklaces’ and seven ‘Suspended Lovers’. These works will illuminate the gallery walls with radiant tones of blue, red, pink, purple, and gold. The ‘Necklaces’ are monumental in size, both suspended in space and cascading down to the floor, while the ‘Suspended Lovers’ hang from a single thread. The works are suspended in the space of the gallery and also in time, as their solidarity preserves the memory of the unstable liquid state that preceded. The exhibition will also debut one new work from his ‘Precious Stonewall’ series, continuing his investigation into both brick and glass. The work on view in Shanghai offers a glimpse into Othoniel’s architectural research.