Stephan Balkenhol: Personal Exhibition

Since the mid-1980s, Balkenhol has developed a highly recognizable style rooted in traditional craftsmanship and a contemporary take on the human figure.

He studied at the Hamburg School of Fine Arts from 1976 to 1982, where he trained under the sculptor Ulrich Rückriem and was taught by influential artists such as Nam June Paik and Sigmar Polke. In response to the dominant abstract, minimalist, and conceptual approaches of his time, Balkenhol turned toward the portrayal of the everyday person—eschewing heroic, idealized imagery in favor of ordinary, anonymous figures.

By the 1990s, his visual vocabulary expanded to include animals, hybrid beings, and architectural motifs, along with increasingly complex reliefs. His totemic sculptures, often evoking the spirit of folk art and medieval statuary, depict men and women in modest, plain-colored clothing, standing in relaxed, neutral poses. These figures convey no overt emotion, narrative, or socio-political commentary, yet they possess a quiet presence—timeless, familiar, and resolutely human.