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until 22.11. | #4828ARTatBerlin | Galerie feinart berlin presents from Saturday, 11th October 2025 the exhibition “Stimmen von Stahl. Tellurische Gesichter” by the artist Karl Menzen.
The feinart berlin gallery pays tribute to Karl Menzen (11 April 1950 – 19 November 2020), whose poetic sculptures adorn public spaces throughout Berlin.
Karl Menzen would have turned 75 this year. Together with prominent institutions such as the Gerhard-Marcks-Haus in Bremen, the Haus am Lützowplatz in Berlin and the Kunsthalle Lehnin, the feinart berlin gallery is honouring the work of the metal sculptor this year, whose poetic steel sculptures can be seen in many public spaces in Berlin and other federal states.
Karl Menzen’s work is unmistakably characterised by the principle of reduction to elementary geometric forms. His „Transformations“ arise, for example, from rectangular, square or round base plates, which he liberates for unfolding into space through simple incisions and bends. His guiding motif is to lend the hard, heavy material an essence of movement. The departure of the originally flat basic form into three-dimensionality is a dynamic event: the sculptures stand up, balance, take off, fly.
Karl Menzen, O.T., steel, wall sculpture, 68 x 50 x 18 cm © Photo Credits: Axel Sommer
Under the title „Stimmen von Stahl. Tellurische Gesichter“, in English „Voices of steel. Telluric faces“ the exhibition shows several works that seem to fall outside the sculptor’s typical canon because they confront steel with another material or process damaged, rusty steel in a way that recalls its utility value. In these encounters with worn surfaces and rugged foreign materials, the polarity between formal lightness and the resistance of the material’s telluric heaviness intensifies into a tragic tension in the positive sense.
Karl Menzen, O.T., painted steel Stahl red, 42 x 28 x 37 cm © Photo Credits: Axel Sommer
Menzen’s detailed knowledge of material properties and mathematical laws on the one hand, and his imagination of dynamic forms on the other, merge to create dance-like results. In their metric construction, his sculptures are sensitive and atmospheric, sometimes weighing between opposing forces, sometimes following their longing for weightlessness.
Karl Menzen, O.T., 2003, marble, stainless steel, steel, 76 x 31,5 x 24,5 cm © Photo Credits: Axel Sommer
A figurative approach is most evident in Karl Menzen’s mask sculptures, eight of which are on display in the exhibition. The masks open up his work with metal to anthropological themes. The mask is a covering for the face, both offering protection and the possibility of deception. The mask is an object of traditional and ritual practices that has internalised social and cultural meanings. Cast in steel, Menzen’s masks evoke archaic ideas of guardians and warriors, yet as aesthetic objects they remain rooted in the concrete approach of his artistic practice.
Karl Menzen’s work is based on the equivalence of sculpture and space. Each object considers its surroundings, the negative of its body. It is no coincidence that most of his sculptures can be viewed from all angles, such as the roof sculpture „…von allen Seiten schön…” (Kurfürstendamm / corner of Bleibtreustraße), which rotates once a year and thus actively influences our view of it. This echoes the philosophical idea that the same object appears different at first, second or third glance. Nothing has a fixed existence. Everything changes when you change your perspective. The fact that we are nevertheless dealing with strong physical presences is probably one of the sculptor’s secrets.
Karl Menzen, O.T., stainless steel, 28 x 20 x 20 cm © Photo Credits: Axel Sommer
Karl Menzen was born in Heppingen (Rheinland-Pfalz) in 1950. After studying materials science at the Technical University of Berlin, where he graduated with a degree in engineering, he decided to pursue a career as a sculptor. He trained under the sculptor Volkmar Haase, with whom he collaborated for decades. Menzen worked as a freelance artist in Berlin from 1986 onwards and has been represented at exhibitions, art competitions and symposia since 1987, which have made him well known in Germany (Chemnitz, Dresden, Frankfurt am Main, Freiburg, Hamburg, Kiel, Zwickau, etc.) and internationally (Milan, Malmö, Mantua, Paris, Pisa, Vilnius, Vienna). He died suddenly and unexpectedly on 19 November 2020. Karl Menzen’s works can be seen in public spaces in Berlin and other federal states. In Berlin, for example, at Kaiserdamm 6 (spire with wings), at Große Hamburger Straße 17 in Mitte, the „Transformation — zentrifugal“ and at Kurfürstendamm / corner of Bleibtreustraße, the roof sculpture „…von allen Seiten schön…”. Outside Berlin, we find the „Fünf Kuben“ on the International Art Trail in Hohen Fläming (1st prize, Bad Belzig), „Ruhend — Fließend“ in Alexandrowka Potsdam, and „Spaltung — Fügung — Überwindung“ in the Horn Collection of the Schleswig-Holstein State Museum (Schloss Gottorf).
Vernissage: Saturday, 11 October 2025, 6–9 p.m. | 7 p.m. official welcome address
Exhibition dates: Saturday, 11 October to Saturday, 22 November 2025
Closing reception: Saturday, 22 November 2025, 6–9 p.m.
Date during the exhibition: To be announced
To the gallery
Image caption title: Karl Menzen, O.T., steel, wall sculpture, 64 x 53 x 18 cm © Photo Credits: Axel Sommer
Exhibition Karl Menzen – Galerie feinart berlin | Zeitgenössische Kunst Berlin – Contemporary Art – Exhibitions Berlin Galleries | ART at Berlin
