Stephan Balkenhol

Stephen Friedman Gallery presents Stephan Balkenhol’s ninth solo exhibition at the gallery. Devoid of expression or emotion, Balkenhol’s distinctive and timeless works are sculpted by his own hand, carved from a singular block of wood without the use of machinery.

Stephan Balkenhol was born in 1957 in Fritzlar, Germany. He lives and works in Karlsruhe, Germany and Meisenthal, France. Balkenhol studied at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg from 1976-82. His focus on the human form and his intention to reintroduce figuration into contemporary art was a divergent response to the abstract, minimalist and conceptual approaches of the school during the 1970s.

Balkenhol’s anonymous figures are painted in simple colour combinations and appear both living and inanimate. They retain the grooves, cracks, chips and fissures that represent the sculpting process, demonstrating the artist’s raw and spontaneous treatment of the material. Balkenhol’s process advances the longstanding tradition of woodcarving in Germany, inviting comparisons to expressionist sculptors such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Ernst Barlach.

Throughout his career, Balkenhol has completed a significant number of public commissions, with installations in front of the Blackfriars Bridge in London, at the entrance of the Hamburg Zoo, Germany; at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt, Germany; in Le Havre, France; and in Kassel and Leipzig, Germany.

Notable solo exhibitions include: ‘Stephan Balkenhol’, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany (2020–2021); ‘Stephan Balkenhol’, Museum Jorn, Silkeborg, Denmark (2020); ‘Le Prévu et l'Imprévu’, Palais d'Iéna, Paris, France (2020); ‘Stephan Balkenhol’, Museum of Sepulchral Culture, Kassel, Germany (2019); ‘Stephan Balkenhol’, Kunsthalle Emden, Emden, Germany (2018) and ‘30 Years Stephan Balkenhol’, Deweer Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (2017).

Balkenhol’s works are included in prominent collections internationally, including the Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal, Quebec, Canada; Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA; Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, Germany; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany; Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France and National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan.