King Houndekpinkou b. né 1987

King Houndekpinkou is a French-Beninese ceramist, born in Montreuil (France) in 1987. He lives in Paris, and works in France, Benin and Japan.

In 2012, his discovery of the Roku Koyō (the six ancestral pottery kilns of Japan), encouraged him to travel yearly to Bizen (Okayama Prefecture) to gain knowledge and train with his Bizen potter friends, which include Toshiaki Shibuta. While there, King was seduced by their spiritual and ceremonial approach to ceramic creation, which, to him, was reminiscent of the animist Voodoo cult of Benin, the country of his roots. As a result of this epiphanic experience, the artist developed Terres Jumelles, a program that consists of fostering an intercultural dialogue between the pottery sites of Benin and Japan through local ceramic practices in both countries.

Today, King has developed a practice that blends tradition, spirituality and visceral creativity, while crossing many "boundaries", be they cultural, geographic, generational, disciplinary, technical or historical. King mixes materials from all continents (e.g. clays, ashes, powders). Although fashioned on balanced bases, his works seem "disfigured" by an overload of clay and vivid textures that mimic the aesthetics of Beninese Voodoo altars and fetishes.

King is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics and his work is regularly exhibited internationally (Australia, Benin, Hong Kong, Japan, Morocco, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, USA).

King’s work has been included in international exhibitions, including :

Museums

2021 : Cultural Affairs: Art without Borders, Grassi Museum of Applied Arts, Leipzig, Germany.

2020: Exhibition of the International Academy of Ceramics, Guozhong Museum of Ceramic Art, Beijing, China.

Là où l'Âme se Plaît, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France (Curators: Galerie Vallois, UNESCO).

2017: About George Ohr: Contemporary Ceramics in the Spirit of the Mad Potter, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, USA.

International Fairs

2021: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, United Kingdom.

2019 : The Salon Art + Design Park Avenue Armory, New York, United States.

2018 : The Salon Art + Design Park Avenue Armory, New York, United States.

          Art Paris Art Fair 2018 Le Grand Palais, Paris, France.