Stephan Balkenhol | Dan Graham
“It is something primal in human nature to explore and confirm reality and one's own existence through images – be they drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, etc. Why should this no longer be possible? That was and is the vision that has carried me through my creative process and continues to inspire me to this day. In doing so, I have avoided allowing sculpture to become a vehicle for sociological or religious messages, as was common in earlier centuries. My sculptures confront the viewer with openness and ambivalence and thus represent more of a question than an answer. It is only through the viewer's gaze that the sculpture is filled with content.”
– Stephan Balkenhol (studio talk, PArt Foundation / Spiegelberger Foundation)
For the first time in history, works by Dan Graham (1942 in Urbana – 2022 in New York City) will be juxtaposed with works by Stephan Balkenhol (*1957 in Fritzlar, Germany). Both artists have been closely associated with the exhibition history of Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle since the 1980s, but their works have never been shown in tandem. In their sculptural works, Dan Graham and Stephan Balkenhol deliberately guide the viewer’s gaze and immediately confront it with itself – Graham by way of his mirror pavilions using their surroundings, and Balkenhol with his iconic figures that let the viewer seek eye contact in vain, thus promptly encouraging introspection.
