guest of honour 2024

Johan Creten is considered one of the pioneers – with Thomas Schütte and Lucio Fontana – of 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 further dimension to his sculpture work, giving the glaze and its colors a primary role in the artworks. Deeply influenced by the environment, Johan Creten’s work ranges widely, from delicate clay sculptures to large-scale bronzes – a medium he has introduced in his work more recently.

Johan Creten creates his own fantasy world through phantasmagoric and organic creatures and forms, resulting in an œuvre that reveals the artist's personal commitments and raises existential questions, for instance, about the ambiguity of sexuality in the human race, or the unpredictable strength of nature, among others.