Stephan Balkenhol Geld, 2009

My sculptures don’t tell stories.There is something that has to do with secrecy. It is not for me to reveal it, but for the viewer to discover it by himself. — Stephan Balkenhol

Stephan Balkenhol is known for the roughly-hewn, figurative wooden works that he began making in the 1980s. This focus on the human form set him apart from the contemporary art movements of the 1970s, when the emphasis was on abstract, Minimal and Conceptual approaches and figuration had fallen from favour. Showing few signs of emotion and bearing no socio-political references, these figures negate and transcend the specifics of any narrative, instead embodying the universal idea of being; ‘I look for an open kind of expression which will allow any state of mind or situation’ explains the artist.