King Houndekpinkou

Born in Montreuil (France) in 1987, King Houndekpinkou is a Franco-Beninese ceramic artist based in the Paris region. A member of a young generation of African diaspora artists working internationally, he is part of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC) and works between France, Japan, and Benin.

King grew up in the Paris suburbs, where his childhood was deeply influenced by Japanese popular culture that flooded France in the 1990s (e.g. anime, video games, manga). From an early age, he developed a fascination for Japan—a passion that followed him through adolescence and continues today, as he still travels there every year.

In 2012, while pursuing a corporate communications career and with no prior contact with the world of ceramics, King fulfilled his childhood dream of traveling to Japan. During that first trip, he discovered by chance the existence of Japan’s six ancient pottery towns, known as the Roku Koyō (Bizen, Echizen, Seto, Shigaraki, Tamba, and Tokoname).

One of these historic centers—Bizen—captivated him. He began training in ceramics that same year in Paris and has since returned to Bizen annually to deepen his skills. There, he gained hands-on experience with the Keramos group potters, and especially alongside ceramic artist Toshiaki Shibuta, who became, in King’s words, a “father of clay.”

In Bizen, King was struck by the ceremonial approach of his fellow potters, whose work is rooted in the elements of earth and fire. Their creative process gives rise to raw, unglazed works covered with natural wood-ash glaze. Their practice, imbued with Shinto spirituality, resonated deeply with the animist traditions of Vodun, rooted in King’s Beninese heritage. For him, both belief systems seek a transcendental connection between humankind and nature to guide existence. This revelation convinced him to leave his first career path and devote himself fully to ceramics—a pursuit that began as a personal quest and evolved into an artistic one.

From this experience was born Terres Jumelles (Twin Lands) in 2016, a cultural program aimed at bridging Benin and Japan through traditional and contemporary ceramics. Clay becomes a universal medium for cultural dialogue, inviting Beninese and Japanese ceramicists to share experiences and highlight the humanistic and unifying values of the craft.

Like Bernard Leach [1887–1979] and Michael Cardew [1901–1983]—British potters who forged cultural bridges between East and West, and later Europe and West Africa—King is among those who view ceramics as a medium of cultural connection. His creations synthesize his multiple cultural inheritances and the contemporary vision he infuses into his work. They are, as he describes, a “blend of devotion and spirituality”, made from mixtures of clays and materials sourced from various places (e.g. Benin, Japan, Spain, USA).

Today, King has developed a practice that merges tradition, spirituality, and visceral engagement with matter. By questioning the porous boundaries between craft and art, he creates works that lie at the crossroads of personal narrative and the universal story of clay.

Although he expresses deep respect for ceramic traditions—both artistic and artisanal—King’s works are unmistakably contemporary, marked by modern execution (e.g. glazing techniques, high-temperature electric firing, and innovative forms). He belongs to a lineage of artists who, as Garth Clark, critic and art historian specializing in contemporary ceramics, describes, are “resolutely irreverent in their processes, disdainful of rules, and liberated in their use of the vessel form—transforming it into sculpture, painting with similar abandon and an electric palette.”

In 2017, several of these iconoclastic artists—including King, Glenn Barkley, Takuro Kuwata, Anne-Marie Laureys, Gareth Mason, Ron Nagel, Gustavo Perez, Ken Price, Peter Voulkos, and Betty Woodman—were invited by Garth Clark to participate in the exhibition Regarding George Ohr: Contemporary Ceramics in the Spirit of the Mad Potter, which paid tribute to American potter George Edgar Ohr [1857–1918]. Known as “The Mad Potter of Biloxi” and the “Picasso of art pottery,” Ohr is considered the father of abstract expressionism in ceramics, a movement that treats vessels (e.g. bowls, vases, cups) as autonomous artistic expressions.

King’s works have also been exhibited alongside pieces by Jeff Koons, Sterling Ruby, Pedro Reyes, and Jean-Michel Frank.

The “anatomy” of some of his works is composed of separately wheel-thrown vessels (e.g. vases, cups, bowls, plates) later assembled into sculptural pieces with living textures. Though based on simple forms, others appear “tortured” or “deformed” by dense material overloads—layers of matte, glossy, and metallic drips—visually representing the accumulation of stories and events from which they emerge.

Upon closer inspection, one notices a thick, enveloping “skin,” sometimes covered in spines reminiscent of West African ritual pots. These features evoke the protective attributes of plants and animals whose spikes or thorns confer a quasi-divine safeguard, sacralizing their status.

Guardians of the Sea - Rocabella 2025-2026