Stephan Balkenhol
Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm
May 12 - June 17, 2007
GALLERI LARS BOHMAN
Karlavägen 16, 114 31 Stockholm
www.gallerilarsbohman.com
Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm
May 12 - June 17, 2007
Galleri Lars Bohman presents an exhibition with new works by Stephan Balkenhol, one of the foremost sculptors of our time.
Stephan Balkenhol’s work stand in contrast with a long tradition of three-dimensional art. Instead of continuing along the traditional path with sculptures representing the heroism and specifics of one man’s actions, Stephan Balkenhol celebrates with his sculptures the every day person, someone that he refers to as Everyman. Ordinary people have climbed up on the artist’s pedestals and with blank facial expressions they meet the viewers passing by. Stephan Balkenhol lets his people wear normal and plain clothes that reveal nothing about their function in society, their social group or profession.
It is not only with the ordinary appearances of his sculptures that Stephan Balkenhol has broken with a sculptural figurative tradition. Instead of casting his work in bronze, he most often carves them out of soft wood, such as wava or poplars. The figures come out of large pieces of wood and the artist leave clear and visible marks of the chisel that he uses in the working process. The traces in the wood leave the finished work with the artist’s ever lasting presence which makes the sculptures exude their sense of humanism. Instead of telling a story of a specific person or a specific moment, Stephan Balkenhol makes his men and women into our neighbours, our relatives or maybe most importantly, into all the people we will never meet or get to know. In doing so he creates a universal but yet personal presence with his sculptures.
Stephan Balkenhol was born in 1957 in Fritzlar, Hessen, Germany. He lives and works in Miesenthal, France and in Karlsruhe, Germany where he is also professor at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. He received his artistic education at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg, where he studied for Ulrich Rückriem.
GALLERI LARS BOHMAN
Karlavägen 16, 114 31 Stockholm
www.gallerilarsbohman.com
