Schattensprecher, 2009, Kunstmuseum Bonn, detail (self-portrait of the artist with ventriloquist's dummy)Arbeiten im Reichtum 3 und 7, Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1983Ich liebe Dich, 1983, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München (Munich)shining, 2004, MUMOK (Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig) Vienna, installation view (model of the artist's childhood house)8,5 Zi.Wohnung f.Künstler, 49 J., 2002, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München (Munich), detailGran Paradiso, 1997, Neue Messe München (Munich Fare Trade Centre)Das Große Leuchten, 2006 (Künstlerhaus Hanover)
Stephan Huber (born 1952 in Lindenberg im Allgäu) is a German sculptor and object artist.
Huber's oeuvre is characterized by a narrative language which distills the conceptional and experiential world of the artist into striking images with immediate emotional impact. Huber often makes himself the protagonist of his works, thematizing his homeland and childhood as well as giving artistic expression to what he sees, reads, and remembers, and thus delineates the social, geographical, and intellectual horizon within which he moves. The autobiographical references—for example, models of radiantly white mountains, upper middle-class interiors, and his parental home—not only are to be understood as aesthetic psychograms of the artist, but also combine with fictional elements and art-historical, political, or literary references so as to give rise to personally colored but simultaneously universal, archetypal symbols of social or emotional states.
One fundamental aspect of Huber's oeuvre is a deliberate play with disturbing estrangement. "In the tradition of Munich Dadaism",[1] his sculptures and installations work with a transposition of the customary context of objects as well as with unusual perspectives, altered sizes, logical paradoxes, and unexpected occurrences. Reciprocally related individual works are often joined into spatial passages which are meant to be explored in succession, for example in the exhibition "8,5 Zi.-Whg. f. Künstler, 49 J." ("8½-Room Apt. for Artist, 49 Years Old") at the Lenbachhaus Gallery in Munich. The sometimes emotionally overwhelming aesthetic through which Huber situates himself in the tradition of the Bavarian-Baroque world theater becomes broken and humanized through a humorous revelation of its mechanisms, an ironic distancing, or an unexpected turn of events.
In addition to space-encompassing installations and works in public spaces, Huber's oeuvre also includes graphic works, films, plays for puppet theater, and performative projects.
2007 Rolandpreis für Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (Roland Award for Public Art), Bremen
2008 Kunstpreis der Stadt München (City of Munich Art Prize)
2024 Bezirk Schwaben (Swabian District Art Prize)[2]
Works in public spaces (selection)
2011 Design of the subway station Wien-Aspern in Vienna (completion at the end of 2012)
2010 Drei Kasperlstücke für das Ruhrgebiet (Three Punch-Plays for the Ruhr Region), puppet theater at public sites in the Ruhr region for the exhibition Emscherkunst.2010, Essen
2010 In und um und um herum, light-box installation, Universitätsklinikum Ulm
2010 Raining Hat, fountain sculpture, Landesgartenschau Rosenheim
2008–2010 Arbeiten im Reichtum 2, series of actions in public spaces, Bremen
2007 Cumulus:Cambodunum, fountain sculpture in front of Stadttheater Kempten
2006 Das große Leuchten, exterior installation in front of Künstlerhaus Hannover
1980 Munich, Kunstforum: Das Mehl (solo exhibition)
1980 New York, P.S.1, Institute for Art and Urban Resources
Exhibition catalogues and similar publications (chronological)
Stephan Huber, Das Gottesreich fliegt – der Kunstverein tanzt, exhib. cat. Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster 1982, with text by Thomas Deecke
Stephan Huber, Lager im Kopf, 1983, Verlag Hubert Kretschmer, Munich
Stephan Huber, exhib. cat. Bonner Kunstverein, 1984, with texts by Margarethe Jochimsen, Helmut Friedel, Stephan Huber, Michael Schwarz, Thomas Deecke, Hermann Pitz
Das Engadinprojekt, 1987, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, with an interview between Stephan Huber and Uwe M. Schneede
Thomas Dreher: Huber. Zeichen-Körper Artefactum, Nr.20/September-October 1987, S.24-29 (In German), p.66 (Summary in English)
Stephan Huber, 1989, Künstler, Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, text by Stephan Schmidt-Wulffen
Stephan Huber, Raimund Kummer, 1991, exhib. cat. Hamburger Kunsthalle, with texts by Monika Steinhausen, Uwe M. Schneede, Armin Zweite, Thomas Deecke, Margarethe Jochimsen, Helmut Friedel et al.
Stephan Huber, Nordwand Südkreuz, 1993, exhib. cat. Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, with texts by Ludger Derenthal and Stephan Huber
Stephan Huber, Raimund Kummer, Hauptbahnhof Nord, 1994, Hamburg Culture Office, with texts by Uwe M. Schneede, Achim Könneke, Ludger Derenthal
Stephan Huber, Bauplatz, 1994, exhib. cat. Kunsthalle Mannheim, with an interview between Jochen Kronjäger and Stephan Huber
Vier Texte zu Stephan Huber, 2001, exhib. cat. Kunstverein Hannover, Museum der bildenden Künste in Leipzig, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, four volumes in slipcase
...auf einer unsichtbaren strasse auf der höhe ihrer fenster...., 2006, catalogue for the Art Project Petuelpark, Prestel Verlag, Munich / New York, with texts by Uwe M. Schneede and Stephan Huber
Montags bei Petula Park. 12 performative evenings in Café Petuelpark, 2008, edited by Stephan Huber and the Lenbachhaus in Munich
Hans-Jürgen Hafner: Stephan Huber. Leibniz, Larifari und der Teufel, 2008, Kunstforum 191
Evelyn Schels: Vor den Bergen: Der Bildhauer Stephan Huber, film documentation, first broadcast on 21 November 2010, Bayerisches Fernsehen
