September 29, 2006 to January 28, 2007
MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art

From 29.09.2006 to 28.01.2007, the MKM is presenting the most comprehensive exhibition of works by the sculptor Stephan Balkenhol in Germany to date. The museum’s collection includes such important works as Hexagon and Fries from 1988, which are being shown in their entirety for the first time since the year they were created.

Stephan Balkenhol (*1957), who teaches sculpture at the Karlsruhe Art Academy, constantly explores new facets of the aesthetic and content-related possibilities of contemporary representational sculpture. What can sculpture achieve today without imposing one-dimensional interpretations? His main concern is the depiction of human beings, although animals and architecture also serve as models time and again. The artist creates certain basic types – men and women in neutral clothing – which appear in diverse, ever new variations. Balkenhol’s sculptures seem to originate from our reality; we can clearly identify their clothing or their posture. And yet these figures, which display no emotions, remain strangely enigmatic, anonymous and fictitious. They walk a fine line between recognition and doubt, between closeness and distance – and this is precisely what makes them so fascinating for the viewer.