Edition in bronze, cast in the lost wax process, chased by hand and patinated.

Dirk Balke (1960)

"Oil painter," says Dirk Balke in an exhibition catalog with quiet irony, he has been since he was seven years old, after all, that's when he got his first oil paints. However, he embarked on the classical path of studying art relatively late. From 2000 to 2004 he studied at the Neue Kunstakademie Rhein/Ruhr in Essen and Krefeld. Since then he has been working as a freelance artist, first in Vienna for a few years, then in Düsseldorf, where he is also extremely active in the cultural organization as a member of the "Kultur im Hafen" association. 

Whereas as a painter he was initially inclined towards informal abstraction, his more recent works are more representational, indeed at times downright hyperrealistic. It is the tension between these supposed opposites that interests him.

Balke's sculptural works are also characterized by the unmediated encounter of opposites: The mummy-like wrapped figure with its defiant mouflon horn and gas protection mask oscillates between strength and vulnerability, and it is no different when Balke unceremoniously replaces a dragon-blooded legendary hero with one that is actually made of soft wine gum - as a sculptor, Balke thus engages in jest, satire, and irony with deeper meaning.