Catalog published on the occasion of the solo-exhibition of Johan Creten "Alfred Paintings" at the University of Alfred, in New York

JOHAN CRETEN
« Alfred Paintings »
University of Alfred,
New York State,
USA
2013-2014

"Alfred Paintings" constitutes a major ensemble of twenty-seven pieces created by Johan Creten during an artist residency in 2013 at the New York State College of Ceramics of the renowned Alfred University. These works are similar to paintings, which by their form, their size, and their vocation to be hung on the wall, allow a decompartmentalization of genres and unprecedented technical experiments.

View of the exhibition

« Marbles » (ALFRED PAINTING 18), 2013

“‘Paintings’. The term chosen by Johan Creten for the 27 pieces created at Alfred University, in the State of New York, betrays the singular nature of this project developed in the quiet, sylvan environment of this major center for international ceramics. Twenty-seven works, 27 stations on a logical, almost necessary way of the cross. Freed from constraints and categories, when sculpture is reconciled with painting. Twenty-seven stakes thrust into idleness, 27 banderillas thrust into continence, that unpunished vice. At last.”

Colin Lemoine in “Alfred Paintings”, p.38, 2015

« Blue » (ALFRED PAINTING 22), 2013 (detail)

“The painting becomes an aesthetic mediation. It is possible to see ourselves within it and to see what it would be impossible to see without it. Not like that, in any case. The epiphany of a blurred universe, full of halos, aureoles and lights. For the image that the painting reverberates is never defined, never delimited. Its outlines tremble, its colors vibrate, its forms sparkle. A spectral image comes to the surface of this painting, which has now become a shroud of beauty.”

Colin Lemoine