Stephan Balkenhol

Stephan Balkenhol's roughly carved and colourfully painted wooden figures are world-famous and unmistakable. Humans are at the centre of his motifs, but animals and imaginative hybrid creatures also feature. The artist repeatedly varies his depictions of men and women, often showing them in neutral clothing and calm gestures, but sometimes also staging them in unusual ways and equipping them with unexpected attributes. Although no two figures are alike, their faces appear enigmatically typified in their expression, transcending the individual, moving and still at the same time. This expression stands in a certain contradiction to the surface, which is littered with splinters, notches and joints, testifying to an expressionist creative process. And it is precisely this that gives the sculptures and reliefs their fascination and distinctiveness.

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