Ranging from assemblages with found objects to encaustic paintings and drawings, Jean Louis Frenk is best known for his colorful and biomorphic ceramic sculptures. As a teenager he was deeply influenced by the art of modern masters such as Paul Klee, Yves Tanguy and the work of a lesser known Swiss artist Max von Moos. When he first set foot in a ceramic studio he found his preferred medium to work with, empathic to the grounding and healing qualities of the clay. In addition to his pottery made on the wheel, Jean Louis Frenk, liberated and encouraged by the work of West Coast ceramic artists such as Peter Voulkos and Ken Price started over two decades ago to create otherworldly objects and images. Those totemic portals document his studio practice and remain for the public to explore and collect as artworks.
In this path the artist continues to develop and share his idiosyncratic voice, an activity he sees as essential and as a unique individual contribution to the production of art in a world currently determined by the imminent globalization of human culture.
Swiss American, born1962 in Lausanne, Switzerland, he is based in Brooklyn and Coxsackie, NY where he lives with his wife and two children.