French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel presents a new series of six large sculptures at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. His passion for gardens inspired him to create new works—in gold leaf and stainless steel—for three iconic outdoor spaces. It is the artist’s largest show in the United States since his retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in 2012. The artist selected the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden as the setting for the Gold Lotus series, works that link the spiritual to the sensory. The lotus flower symbolizes spirituality, rebirth, enlightenment, and the sacred. On Lily Pool Terrace, two gigantic mirror bead sculptures spring from the pools; the works respond to each other, enveloping the visitor in a play of multiple reflections. In the intimate Fragrance Garden, designed to stimulate the sense of smell and touch, the artist pays homage to the rose, the queen of flowers. The perfect shape of this flower has been a recurrent motif in his work, including paintings he created for the Louvre in 2019. The exhibition is free with Garden admission. Born in 1964 in Saint-Etienne, France, Jean-Michel Othoniel has been inventing a universe with multiple contours since the late 1980s. Othoniel has had major exhibitions all over the world. He had an important retrospective at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris entitled My Way, later shown at the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art/Plateau in Seoul and the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, the Macao Museum of Art in Macao, and the Brooklyn Museum. Recently he exhibited in the museum and garden at Petit Palais in Paris in 2021 and at the Seoul Museum of Art in 2022. Since his first public commission in Paris in 2000, Le Kiosque des Noctambules, Othoniel’s work has been shown equally in museums and in the public space including an exceptional project of three fountain sculptures in gilded glass in the gardens at the Château de Versailles, Les Belles Danses, and Alfa, an installation for the new National Museum of Qatar of 114 fountain sculptures. In 2019 a new series of paintings entered the permanent collection of the Louvre. His works can be found in the world’s best contemporary art museums, foundations, and private collections. Jean-Michel Othoniel introduces The Flowers of Hypnosis at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Gold Lotus series
Gold Rose
Mirror Lotus
The artist shares his inspirations. Video courtesy of Perrotin. Jean-Michel Othoniel: The Flowers of Hypnosis is sponsored by DIOR as part of its Cultural Gardens initiative.
Stories from the Artist
Introduction
Japanese Garden
Fragrance Garden
Lily Pool Terrace
Jean-Michel Othoniel: The Flowers of Hypnosis at Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Support
Jean-Michel Othoniel: The Flowers of Hypnosis
Exhibits
July 18–October 22, 2023
Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden, Fragrance Garden, Lily Pool Terrace
Image, top of page: Michael Stewart
Jean-Michel Othoniel Biography
Image, top of page: Michael Stewart