Stephan Balkenhol
dal 24/4/2013 al 31/5/2013
Segnalato da
24/4/2013
Stephan Balkenhol
Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich
Sculptures and the drawings all created especially for the exhibition
Stephan Balkenhol (born in Fritzlar, Germany, in 1957) is the premier spirit behind the revival of figurative sculpture in the early 1980s. His oeuvre stands for artists of his generation - for instance Cindy Sherman, Thomas Schutte und Katharina Fritsch - who rejected abstract, conceptual and late minimalist art as represented by such artists as Balkenhol's teacher Ulrich Rueckriem. Balkenhol's work ranges from full-size sculptures, installations and reliefs to photographs and drawings. He is undoubtedly one of the most important sculptors of his time. Since 1992 he has been a professor at the State Academy of the Arts in Karlsruhe, and divides his time between Germany and Meisenthal, France. The sculptures, all created especially for the exhibition, and the drawings on view are not governed by the dictates of illustration; in taking themselves seriously, they take viewers seriously as well. Stephan Balkenhol's works ultimately address existential issues, his works foster reflection through the concrete experience of them within the space that they occupy. It is this approach that makes Balkenhol's work, from the early 1980s to the present day, so persuasive and compelling. Vernissage: Thursday, 25 April 2013, 6 to 8p.m.