Stefan Vogel combines drawing, writing, and sculptural forms to create a dense unity. His tropes are influenced by concrete poetry. In multi-part wall pieces and full room installations, he weaves the organic and the artificial into fragile networks of relationships. Like a cartographer he maps the paths as well as the altitudes of terrain that is yet to be determined. The images that emerge from this process are reminiscent of wasteland. Vogel suggests this himself with the term “Gebrache”, which he coined to express a vulnerable state of quiescence and unused potential. Something stays still – but unrest crystallizes within! Chaos and order, like suffering and prosperity, spring from the same possibility. Only time and logic change, over and over again. The specific material and color aesthetic in Vogel’s works are based on the use of everyday objects, natural materials and building materials. Through rhythmic repetition of essential elements of form, color, and substance, decay and chance inspire the anarchy of things and words. On the one hand proliferation, on the other, structure, concentration, and reduction. Using this complementary principle, Vogel works on a visual equivalent of complex associations. The works can therefore be read as surfaces for the projection of irresolvable conflicts between different states of mind, recurring mechanisms in society or family constellations, or inter-personal forms of communication. Read More
Institutional and major collections which hold works by the artist include Kunstmuseum Bonn; Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz; Bundeskunstsammlung, Bonn; Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf; G2 Kunsthalle, Hildebrand Collection, Leipzig; Langen Foundation, Neuss; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart; The LBBW Collection, Stuttgart; Philara Collection, Düsseldorf; Tichy Art Foundation, Zurich; etc.
