De Zuil

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.约翰·克滕（Johan Creten）与托马斯·舒特（Thomas Schütte）、卢齐欧·封塔纳（Lucio Fontana）一同被视作将陶瓷引入当代艺术领域的先驱之一。艺术家倾心于陶瓷的美感、象征意蕴与深厚历史，通过多元技法与不同创作尺度探索这一媒介。其绘画训练为雕塑创作赋予了全新维度，令釉料及其色彩成为作品的核心表达要素。深受环境及其对作品观感影响的启发，约翰·克滕的创作范畴极为宽泛，从精巧的黏土雕塑到近期才引入创作的大型青铜作品均有涉猎。通过塑造奇幻且充满有机质感的生物与形态，构建专属的幻想世界，约翰·克滕的全部作品既展现了艺术家自身的理念关切，也引发了诸多存在主义思考，诸如人类性别的模糊性、自然不可预知的力量等。