Biographie

Clemens Gerstenberger was born in 1966 in Leipzig, Germany.  He grew up in an environment that was defined by culture and craftsmanship. At the age of seventeen, he began a two year cabinetmaker apprenticeship.  After this apprenticeship he worked in various joinery businesses and in restoration, in order to develop his skills.  In 1993 he completed his examination for the master craftsman certificate at Leipzig's Chamber of Skilled Trades. 

During his study trips in Europe and Japan, Clemens Gerstenberger studied the understanding of culture and art. He embodies the fusion of the artistic expression of distant cultures and his personal aesthetic feeling. Timelessness replaces randomness, design becomes urban, aspirations become comprehensive. Sensory thinking leads to targeted action. The creation of form – that is visually and haptically convincing.

The insights and experiences made, the desire to express oneself, ultimately lead to the way to new forms, shapes and materials and to the abstract approach of sculptural objects and sculptures. Regarding the latter, the artistic aspect is brought to the fore, functionality loses its significance and the free spirit prevails. Abstraction and recognisable tensions between surfaces and lines create a sensual challenge. In fact, the creative process is characterised by an urban physical confrontation with material and dimension, his sculptures and objects absorb and reflect. The orientation towards new materials such as metal and concrete adds new formal challenges to the creative space.

Member of the Professional Association for Fine Artists ( BBK ) and the International Association of Art (IAA) - Member of the German Arts & Crafts Association ( BK )

Philosophy

The knowledge and experience Gerstenberger obtained through his earlier work lead filiation-like to new shapes and materials and to the abstract approach of sculptural objects and sculptures of the series Corpus Fractum and Folded Body. The life-size sculptures reach out into the space flooding the stature. The pedestal made of concrete increases the aesthetic value and enables a permanent change of perspective. The gaze is all-seeing and thus demands physical confrontation.

The basic artistic concept follows the principle of the confrontation of an organically grown structure with a tectonically constructed one. The original block-like closed shape is erupted by the physically creating access and placed in a new context. The interaction of elevations and depressions - furrowed, dissected, ruptured - in an almost strict stereometric frame creates ridges, folds and furrows within the contour. Light refracts in many fissures, ups and downs. The haptic quality shows smoothness and roughness at the same time without hiding traces of work.

The stele-like stability contrasts with the mechanically induced disturbances and legitimises them.  Here, the allegorical meaning is that the antagonism of formal rigour is resolved with a random break without disharmony.

Individuals who hold artefacts by GERSTENBERGER in their hands, will not only appreciate the haptic encounter and the experience of beauty. For things to become truly enduring, they need a soul, which can be experienced subtly with GERSTENBERGER.

GERSTENBERGER makes sculptural furniture and objects for individualists, who consciously withdraw themselves from the Zeitgeist and demonstrate this mindset by surrounding themselves with representative objects.

Studio

Visitors are welcome to see the work on display at GERSTENBERGER® Studio in Leipzig / Germany. Please contact us before visiting under +49. 170. 2222 880 or write an email to studio [at] clemensgerstenberger [dot] com.

Artwork location

Leipzig / Bamberg / Karlsruhe - Germany | Paris - France | Mumbai - India | Moskow - Russia | Differdange - Luxembourg |

Awards

Sculpture BLACK GEOMETRIC BOWL | colored ash

Tidelands LUXURY Bench | Wengé

Nomination for the Hessian State Award for German Arts and Crafts

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Tidelands bench | ash

Sculpture ZWEITAUSENDDREIZEHN | oak