Stephan Balkenhol

Since the 1980s, Stephan Balkenhol has created some of the most important and individual contemporary sculpture. He has managed to move forward, regardless of fashion or zeitgeist, that which appeared to be passé: figurative views of people and animals. His works are mostly done in wood in an extremely detailed manner that nevertheless always aware of the structure of the material and how it has been worked on.
Is it less well known, however, that Balkenhol, in addition to his intensive work on the figure, has also produced functional objects, furniture and architecture. His three-dimensional, coloured reliefs, which retrace Gothic cathedrals or anonymous modern post-war architecture in wood, delineate an evocative intersection between drawing, painting and sculpture.
This aspect, all to long neglected, is detailed in this book.