Stephan Balkenhol was born in 1957 in Fritzlar, Germany.

He now lives and works in Meisenthal, France.

Attending the Hamburg School of Fine Arts from 1976 - 82, Balkenhol was exposed to the Minimalist and Conceptual trends popular at that time, with tutors including Nam June Paik and Sigmar Polke. His experience has profoundly affected his subsequent artistic practice. Sensing absence in these two schools of thought, Balkenhol sought out the human figure and began a campaign to reintroduce it into contemporary art, declaring: "I must reinvent the figure to resume an interrupted tradition".
As a renowned sculptor, Balkenhol is recognised not only for the technical prowess with which he hands carves each of his wooden sculptures, but also for his continual devotion to exploring the role of the figure within contemporary art. The artist's unique sculptures combine anonymous human figures with tall pedestals, all hand carved from singular blocks, often using wawa wood. The figures emanate timelessness: simple, plain-coloured clothing and the confident yet unassuming poses of the everyday man.

Balkenhol has developed a significant repertoire of public commissions spanning his twenty year-long career, with installations in front of the Blackfriars Bridge in London, at the entrance of the Hamburg Zoo; at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt; and in Kassel and Leipzig, Germany.

Notable solo exhibitions include; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Palais Gogolevski, Moscow, Russia (2015); 'New Sculptures', Akinci, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2015); ‘Stephan Balkenhol' Landes Museum, Linz, Austria (2015-2014); ‘Stephan Balkenhol', Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Germany (2014); ‘Stephan Balkenhol', ‘Unlimited Bodies - Corps Sans Limite,' Palais d'Iéna, Paris, France (2012); ‘Stephan Balkenhol,' Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble (2010); ‘Stephan Balkenhol,' Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (2008-2009); ‘Stephan Balkenhol,' Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden (2006); ‘Stephan Balkenhol,' National Museum of Contemporary Art, Osaka (2005); ‘Stephan Balkenhol,' Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv (2005); Sprengel Museum, Hannover (2003); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC (1995); The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (1991).
Group exhibitions include; ‘Inventory, Vol.5: Acquisitions from 1992 to 1996', FRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen, France (2015); ‘The Art of the Present', Helga de Alevear Collection, Centro Centro, Madrid, Spain (2013); ‘Je t'aime... moi non plus', Musée des Beaux-Arts Eugène Leroy, Tourcoing, France (2013); ‘Unlimited Bodies', Palais Diena, Paris, France (2012); ‘Twenty Years of Presence', MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany (2011); ‘Idea and Object', Galerie Thaddaeus Roapc, Salzburg, Austria (2010); ‘Securities', DEWEER Gallery, Otegem, Belgium (2009); ‘Listen Darling The World Is Yours', Ellipse Foundation Contemporary Art Center, Lisbon, Portugal (2008); ‘Museum der Moderne Salzburg Mönchsberg', Salzburg, Austria (2006); ‘Faces in the Crowd', Whitechapel Gallery, London, England (2005) and ‘Albright Knox art Gallery, Buffalo, USA (2004).

Balkenhol's works are included in prominent collections internationally, including the Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal, Quebec; Smithsonian Institution, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany; Musée de Grenoble, France; The National Museum of Art, Osaka and Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.