REVIEWED: Stephan Balkenhol at Stephen Friedman Gallery


By Martin Macdonald

Installation view, 4 September - 5 October, 2013, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photography Stephen White.
 
Stephen Friedman hosts an exhibition of new works by gallery regular Stephan Balkenhol (b. Fritzlar, Germany, 1957). Running from 4 September - 5 October, the show features figurative sculptures and various wall-mounted pieces – all made of wood. As is often the case in this Mayfair gallery, the front and back exhibition spaces complement each other whilst also presenting themselves as atmospherically different.

“Lucky that my breasts are small and humble [s]o you don't confuse them with mountains,” sang Shakira in her 2001 hit Whenever, Wherever. Like the petite Colombian pop star, the breasts of Balkenhol’s Ballerina (2013) in the gallery’s front room, do not evoke gigantic twin peaks. Yet unlike Shakira, carved from a single piece of wawa a tree native to African countries such as Ghana and also felled in parts of Northern Europe – the mountainous Ballerina towers over visitors as her roughly carved brown tutu mimics the mountains in the screens beside her.  

Installation view, 4 September - 5 October, 2013, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photography Stephen White.

Inspired by a recent trip to British Columbia in Canada, Balkenhol’s digitally altered photographs are printed directly onto plywood surfaces. Wood (2013), a landscape piece of evergreens and mountains hangs on the left wall. The image is disturbed by incisions made directly into the plywood and visible beneath the digital print, the wood grain shines through. The incisions serving as pale beige tree trunks appear to unveil nature - a wild environment touched by humankind - as expressed through the use of the manufactured wood.

A large work on the front room’s back wall, Lake (2013) is rather awe-inspiring yet fails to evoke the sublime as Ballerina appears more powerful than nature itself. Lake comprises a magnificent photographic mountain range as well as a carved out body of water covered in a dark and almost luminescent acrylic paint – the tension between photography and painting clear for one to see. 

Installation view, 4 September - 5 October, 2013, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photography Stephen White.

The back room features an array of smaller sculptures on stools or columns serving as plinths. The painted figures represent white ‘every man’ and white ‘every woman’ as they look quietly ahead. Like ordinary working folk, there is nothing ostentatious about the scaled-down works, not even the red clothing of some of the anonymous characters makes them appear flamboyant. The only thing to add a bit of pizzazz is Welcome (2013), a two part work comprising a sculpture of a man on a column and a minimalist backdrop on a wall behind him. Without being critical, the backdrop's gold leaf block above a green rectangle is as sexy as the room gets.

Installation view, 4 September - 5 October, 2013, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Copyright the artist. Image courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London. Photography Stephen White.

In addition to playing with the tensions between photography and painting as well as human activity and nature, the somewhat neutral expressions of Balkenhol’s figures allow viewers to project their own personal emotions onto the works themselves. In this manner, the figures become mirrors reflecting the audience's moods and thoughts. Ultimately, Balkenhol’s eighth exhibition at Stephen Friedman is refreshing as it not only features his signature figurative sculptures and wall-mounted reliefs but the addition of some rather exquisite nature-inspired landscape works on wood expands the artist’s practice and are a delight to see.



STEPHAN BALKENHOL at STEPHEN FRIEDMAN GALLERY. London, UK. 4 Sep - 5 Oct 2013.