Johan Tahon

Johan Tahon was born in Menen (Belgium) in 1965. He lives and works in Munkzwalm (BE) and in Istanbul (TR). He studied sculpture at the Ghent Royal Academy of Fine Arts (BE).

Since 1994 Johan Tahon exhibits his work on a regular basis in Belgium as well as abroad. In 1996, he caught the attention of Belgium’s most influential curator and museum director Jan Hoet (e.g. Documenta 9), who made it possible for Tahon to interact with world level artists in the internationally renowned exhibition De Rode Poort in the Ghent Museum of Contemporary Art (with a.o. Luc Tuymans, Vito Acconci and Sam Taylor-Wood). From then on Tahon got the full support of Hoet and Tahon started exhibiting his work at different galleries and in prominent museums across Europe, solo or combined with works of a.o. Ilya Kabakov, Günther Förg, Tony Cragg and Stephan Balkenhol.

Johan Tahon took part in major exhibitions like Beaufort (Ostend, BE) and Lustwarande (Tilburg, NL) and showed his sculptures at places like the Ministry of Finance (The Hague, NL), the Gerhard Marcks Haus (Bremen, DE), the Academia Belgica (Rome, IT), the courtyard of the Topkapi Palace (Istanbul, TR), the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington DC, USA) and the Istanbul Biennial (TR). 


Tahon’s sculptures also make part of important public and private collections like S.M.A.K. (Ghent, BE), M HKA (Antwerp, BE), Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, NL), GEM and Gemeentemuseum (The Hague, NL), MARTa (Herford, DE), the Vanhaerents Art Collection (Brussels, BE), the collection of Sevil Sabanci (Istanbul, TR), the Collection of the Dutch House of Royals (The Hague, NL) and the collection of the Ariana Museum (Geneva, CH).