Book dossier

Stephan Balkenhol

by Stephan Balkenhol, James Lingwood

The German sculptor Stephan Balkenhol (born in 1957), whose figurative sculptures have been present in public spaces around the world for over thirty years now, demonstrates to the beholder like hardly any other artist clearly and grippingly a reflection on the relationship of art and the self. Stephan Balkenhol?s wooden sculptures, with their powerful expression of an introverted and silently screaming desire to avoid engagement, virtually compel a dialogue with the surrounding space and the beholder. His wood works undoubtedly use a traditional cultural technique and take up historical visual traditions, but with their thematic vagueness they are clearly linked to the present.00Balkenhol?s wooden figures are never identical with the physical dimension of their beholders. As oversized or miniature figures, they underscore their hyperreal model character and with their narrative attributes, cultural-historical quotations, and subtly varied postures they allude to an inherent puzzling quality that they possess that vehemently contributes to the openness of the artwork desired by the artist and the freedom of its interpretation.00Exhibition: Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark (05.07.-27.09.2020).