Stephan Balkenhol

Stephan Balkenhol (b. 1957, Fritzlar, Germany) received his training as an artist at a time when minimalism and conceptual art were dominant, but he himself felt an urge to reinstate the human figure in its role in art.

In his statues he resisted the idea that such monuments be made exclusively to honour the ‘heroic’, opting instead for neutral figures. Sculptures cut from a single piece of wood – always raw in form and also always figurative – are characteristic of his work. For the most part these figures are simply standing upright, facing forward, looking out into the world, with their faces and clothing neutral in order to not burden the sculpture with meaning. Balkenhol also emphasizes craftsmanship in his work, explicitly allowing the structure of the wood and its handling to remain visible.