Jean-Michel Othoniel has developed his sculptural career mainly in Paris, where he lives. He graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts de Cergy-Pontoise in 1988 and began his exhibition career shortly afterwards, in the early 1990s. In 1992 he took part in the Documenta in Cassel.

From the beginning of his career he showed a great interest in experimenting with materials, in researching their properties, looking for materials and techniques that would allow him to experiment with metamorphosis, sublimation and transmutation.

From 1992, for example, he became very interested in obsidian, the natural glass of volcanic origin, and began to experiment with glass, cooperating with CIRVA ...