Stefan Rinck, Geradline and Party Animal

Stefan Rinck
Geraldine, 2022
Marble
88 x 40 x 175 cm

Party Animal, 2022
Sandstone
95 x 50 x 170 cm
Courtesy Semiose (Paris)

Endowed with costumes, masks and attributes, named after heroes of the Greek mythology, the animals sculpted by Stefan Rinck constitute a discordant but related community of non-humans: they come from another world, from an archaic imaginary, interwoven with myths and legends.

Geraldine and Party Animal are in direct line with his sculptural work. They evoke the Romanesque figures that adorn the capitals and tympanums of churches. They share their morphology and style, and are a hybrid of chimeras and monsters. Stefan Rinck's references crystallize around "gothic" obsessions, in the romantic manner: a taste for mythology and folk tales, for the fantastic and for figures of hubris or excess.

Biography of the artist

Born in 1973 in Homburg, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Stefan Rinck is a sculptor who works with stone, and mainly sandstone. The artist says he perceives the forms hidden in the material, which the blows of his tools reveal. These forms take on the appearance of a large bestiary of small monsters and other demonic creatures. His animal figures seem to hail from another universe or another time. With this fauna, the artist explores a traditional medieval practice, the direct carving of stone figures. Stefan Rinck creates an imaginary world, where belief and fantasy blend and where stone is sculpted into forms reminiscent of totems and idols.