Stephan Balkenhol
28 Mar - 25 Apr 2015
STEPHAN BALKENHOL
28 March - 25 April 2015
There is no need to introduce into Stephan Balkenhol’s work. For 30 years the artist continues to surprise with his pictorial inventions and depictions of women and men in everyday gestures and postures and their famous “expressionless” faces, which gives them a considerable degree of openness. Observations of everyday life and the long global history of figurative sculpture are the social and cultural references of his work. Combined with perfect mastery of his craft, Balkenhol’s works reveal themselves immediately and thus are anti-elitist, democratic and global. Balkenhol’s oeuvre includes works for the private sphere and for the public space, emphasizing spontaneous accessibility and pictorial directness, as can be seen in works like “Mann auf der Mauer” (en.: man on the wall) in Berlin and “Global Couple” in Johannesburg.
Stephan Balkenhol studied at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg, his works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, at Kunstmuseum Ravensburg (2014), Musée de Grenoble (2010), Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2008), Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2007), Kunstmuseum Bern (2006), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2005), The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2005), to name a few.
Stephan Balkenhol lives and works in Meisenthal, France, Kassel and Berlin.
28 March - 25 April 2015
There is no need to introduce into Stephan Balkenhol’s work. For 30 years the artist continues to surprise with his pictorial inventions and depictions of women and men in everyday gestures and postures and their famous “expressionless” faces, which gives them a considerable degree of openness. Observations of everyday life and the long global history of figurative sculpture are the social and cultural references of his work. Combined with perfect mastery of his craft, Balkenhol’s works reveal themselves immediately and thus are anti-elitist, democratic and global. Balkenhol’s oeuvre includes works for the private sphere and for the public space, emphasizing spontaneous accessibility and pictorial directness, as can be seen in works like “Mann auf der Mauer” (en.: man on the wall) in Berlin and “Global Couple” in Johannesburg.
Stephan Balkenhol studied at Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg, his works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, at Kunstmuseum Ravensburg (2014), Musée de Grenoble (2010), Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2008), Museum der Moderne, Salzburg (2007), Kunstmuseum Bern (2006), Tel Aviv Museum of Art (2005), The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2005), to name a few.
Stephan Balkenhol lives and works in Meisenthal, France, Kassel and Berlin.