Johan Creten


Johan Creten is a Flemish sculptor, born in Sint-Truiden, Belgium. He lives and works in Paris, France. In 2009 he was nominated for the Flemish Culture Prize.

Life and career

Johan Creten started to practice drawing and sculpture at an early age. Fascinated by art, literature and music, he met a couple of passionate antiquarians in his hometown that supported him during the first years of his life. In 1985, he graduated at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Ghent where he discovered a clay studio, left behind by the students. Training as a painter, Johan Creten found a real potential in this technique : he started to include ceramics elements in his paintings and familiarized with mud – that he has chosen to be his new medium. He graduated at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. In the 80’s, art was surrounded by conceptual and minimalist artists. By choosing clay, Johan Creten made a bold move, trying to open the possibility of this rare technique in the contemporary art field.
He has been firstly represented by Galerie Meyer in Paris, specialized in tribal art from Oceania that organized two of his exhibitions : "Johan Creten: Peintures et Sculptures" in 1987 et "Kunstkamer. Installation et performance" in 1988. He has also been represented by the galerist Robert Miller in New York who dedicated him an exhibition in 1988 and in 2001.
Johan Creten is currently represented by Galerie Perrotin in New York, Paris and Hong Kong, Almine Rech Gallery in Brussels and Galerie Transit in Mechlin.
In the past twenty years, Johan Creten has been offered prestigious residencies such as the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres and the Villa Medici. By travelling widely around the world and experiencing different studios, each residency was an opportunity to enrich his œuvre.

Artistic practice

Johan Creten is considered one of the precursors – with Thomas Schütte and Lucio Fontana - in introducing ceramics in contemporary art. Fascinated by its beauty, its symbolic impact and the richness of its history, the artist explores the medium through multiple techniques and scales. His painting training brings another dimension to his sculpture work, giving the glaze and its colors a main role in the artworks.
Deeply influenced by the environment and its effects on the impressions of his works, Johan Creten’s work ranges widely, from delicate clay sculptures to large-scale bronzes, a medium he introduced in his work more recently.
Inventing phantasmagoric and organic creatures and forms and creating his own fantasy world through them, Johan Creten’s œuvre reveals the artist own engagements and raises existential questions such as the ambiguity of sexuality in the human race and the unpredictable strength of nature among others.

Solo exhibitions

2020
2019
2018
2017
20165
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
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2009
2008
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1991
1990
1988
1987
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
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2009
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1997
1995
1991