ABOUT
John Dodelande, the co-founder of LITO Editions, is an esteemed entrepreneur and an influential collector of contemporary Chinese art, with a career spanning over a decade in the art world. His journey began with a deep fascination for China's rich visual culture and its rapid modernization, leading him to become an art advisor and collector of works by Chinese artists, particularly those from the post-Mao generation. These artists, who came into prominence in the 1980s and beyond, have intricately explored the human impacts of China's swift economic growth and cultural shifts through various mediums, including traditional methods like ink and oils, as well as conceptual art and new media.
In 2021, Dodelande's expertise in the field was further recognized through his collaboration with Adrian Cheng, the founder of the K11 Art Foundation in Hong Kong, on the publication "Chinese Art: The Impossible Collection." This significant work highlights his deep engagement with Chinese contemporary art. His contributions to the art and technology sector were acknowledged the same year when he was featured in Apollo’s 40 under 40 Art and Tech edition, marking him as one of the sector's leading voices.
Driven by a passion to enhance access to global cultural heritage, Dodelande co-founded LITO in 2022 alongside an engineer from one of the world's leading tech companies. LITO, celebrated by Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies globally, stands at the intersection of art and technology. Operating from the LITO Technology Lab in Bregenz, Austria, this printmaking company and art publisher commissions contemporary artists to conceive original artworks, which are then meticulously transformed into limited editions using LITO's unique and patented technology. This ensures the creation of multiples with unparalleled precision and quality.
LITO Editions has already partnered with renowned artists such as Douglas Gordon, Erwin Wurm, Wang Guangle, Jia Aili, Alexandre Arrechea, Collin Sekajugo, and Peter Halley, producing distinctive and sought-after editions. Moreover, through its conservation arm, LITO Masters, the company extends its innovative approach to leading museums and institutions worldwide, offering new tools for research and conservation. A notable collaboration with the Musee d’Orsay in Paris has led to the creation of textured limited editions of masterpieces by globally acclaimed artists, including Monet and Van Gogh, further cementing LITO's role in bridging the gap between traditional artistry and contemporary technological innovation.
John Dodelande is a prolific businessman and collector. An entrepreneur since his twenties, his first ventures were in the fashion and textiles. Dodelande subsequently invested in agricultural land in the Caucasus region, where he diversified into food-processing. He created a base in the republic of Georgia, where his latest ambitious project is to create modern real-estate infrastructure in the environs of Tbilisi Airport –– hotels, gas stations, parking and restaurants. In 2013, the President of Georgia granted Dodelande Georgian citizenship for exceptional services to the country.
John Dodelande is a prolific businessman and collector. An entrepreneur since his twenties, his first ventures were in the fashion and textiles. Dodelande subsequently invested in agricultural land in the Caucasus region, where he diversified into food-processing. He created a base in the republic of Georgia, where his latest ambitious project is to create modern real-estate infrastructure in the environs of Tbilisi Airport –– hotels, gas stations, parking and restaurants. In 2013, the President of Georgia granted Dodelande Georgian citizenship for exceptional services to the country. Dodelande’s career as a collector has developed in parallel with his business activities. He travelled to China early on in his career, and became deeply interested in that country’s ancient and much misunderstood visual culture. He began to collect works by Chinese artists of the post-Mao generation, the cohort that came to maturity in the 1980s and after. These artists were witnesses of the transformation of China – the super-rapid modernisation, the explosive economic growth, the opening of borders – and they have explored its human effects in their art. Some of those artists use or adapt traditional means such as ink or oils, others have enthusiastically embraced conceptual art and new media. For all the dizzying diversity of their practise, the artists share a rootedness in their native culture, a global outlook, an incisive and challenging creative approach. In all his business and collecting, Dodelande aims to build commercial and cultural bridges, to forge links between continental Europe, the Caucasus, the countries of Central Asia, and China. He sees his activity as a contemporary analogue of the ancient Silk Road, the network of trade routes that allowed for a flow of goods and ideas and innovation between East to West. His pro-active attitude to collecting is part of that wider project: he lends to exhibitions and museums, stages art events of his own: sponsors books, monographs and video. Dodelande is co-author (with Adrian Cheng) of a major survey of the contemporary scene: ‘Chinese Art: The Impossible Collection’, and he is the founder of a patrons’ group dedicated to Chinese contemporary art at Le Musée de l’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris, his native city. Dodelande is also a keen mountaineer who has climbed some of the highest and most remote peaks in the world – among them, the Carstensz Pyramid in New Guinea, Mount Damavand in Iran, and Mount Sidley in Antarctica.