Stephan Balkenhol

Stephan Balkenhol is internationally renowned for his painted sculptures carved from large tree trunks with saws, chisels, and burins. Often created from one piece of wood, the figures appear as if they have grown out of their plinth and mesmerize the beholder with the artisanal virtuosity they embody. The human being is at the center of Balkenhol’s work. He confronts us with men and women the likes of whom we encounter every day, depicting them in a wide variety of poses and clothes and thus fascinate us with their subdued charm. Who hasn’t seen him, the “man in black pants and white shirt,” versions of whom you may bump into in heavily-trafficked public places such as museums as well as in the private sphere. Balkenhol’s figures are incredibly present; they emanate serenity and a sense of calm. Our eyes are strangely unable to meet their gazes; the figures appear introverted and contemplative, as if pondering their own existence or interrogating
the beholder’s alter ego. In Balkenhol’s oeuvre, it is especially the hybrid sculptures, embodying the animalistic qualities of humans, that exert a particular appeal. The artist’s preferred kind of wood is the large abachi trunk, imported from West Africa, which possesses a uniform structure and can have a diameter of up to two meters. But Balkenhol has also mastered the art of working with other types of wood like no one else, such as Lignum vitae, one of the densest woods in the world.