Stephan Balkenhol

The human being and the animal are at the centre of the sculptor Stephan Balkenhol’s work. His sculptures and installations adorn public places and collections internationally and all have the sculptor’s unmistakable signature. His works are represented at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., the National Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, among others. Born in Fritzlar in 1957, Stephan Balkenhol studied under Ulrich Rückriem’s guidance at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg between 1976 and 1982. After graduating, he received the renowned “Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship” for his outstanding artistic achievements. He held his first teaching post at the Hamburg Art Academy from 1988 to 1989 and then went to the Städelschule in Frankfurt until 1991. Since 1992 he has been a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. His wooden sculptures, mostly made of soft woods such as Wawa or poplar, have a rough and seemingly unworked surface. The viewer thus sees every notch, every splinter and every groove, i.e. the complete process of the work’s creation. The figures are carved from a single trunk and are mostly devoid of narrative elements or details of personality or state of mind. The viewer is confronted with the task of making up his own mind about their identity or history. In 1990 he was awarded the prestigious Bremen Art Prize. Since then Stephan Balkenhol has lived and worked in Karlsruhe, Berlin and Meisenthal, Lorraine.