King Houndekpinkou is a Franco-Beninese ceramicist, trained both in Paris and Bizen, Japan. In 2016, King carried out BB Project (Benin-Bizen Project), consisting in blending techniques and local materials from Bizen, Japan, and the pottery village of Sè, near his father’s native lands in Southwest Benin. The adventure resulted in hybrid works that shed a new light on cross-cultural dialogue while placing clay work as a mean of universal plastic expression. Today, King blends clays and other materials from all continents to create experimental works that combine craftsmanship, cross-cultural understanding and spirituality. He cultivates an attraction for the ‘beauty of imperfection’ and purposely scratches, tears and repairs clay bodies often disfigured by texture overload to often emulate the aesthetics of the Voodoo altars from Benin.
His work has been exhibited internationally at biennials, art fairs, group and solo shows including Dak’Art OFF, Dakar, Senegal, World Cultures Festival , Hong Kong, Art Paris Art Fair, Paris, France, Time on Earth , New York, USA, Terre de Mémoire, Cotonou, Benin. He is currently part of the exhibition Regarding George Ohr: Contemporary Ceramics in the Spirit of the Mad Potter, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida, USA.
