Stefan Strumbel

Painting · Sculpture · Object · Public Space

*1979, Offenburg (DE) — lives and works in Offenburg

Browse all works →stefanstrumbel.de ↗

About

Heimat, reframed

Stefan Strumbel, born 1979 in Offenburg in southwestern Germany, works between painting, sculpture, object and public space. Trained outside of academia, with a background in graffiti and street culture, he has spent the last twenty years interrogating the contested German concept of Heimat — homeland — through cuckoo clocks, crucifixes, hunting trophies, forests and folk ornaments dragged out of cliché and into a brighter, sharper, often confronting light.

His vocabulary is recognisable: vivid color, glossy lacquer, Black Forest motifs cast in chrome, bronze or neon. The early What the fuck is Heimat? (2012) and Holy Heimat (Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe, 2012) became reference points for a generation of artists re-examining regional identity in a globalised world.

More recent bodies of work — Forest Bathing, O(H) Wald, Where The Forest Remembers, Carpets, Dunkle Zeiten — turn from the cuckoo clock to the forest itself: ecology, memory and grief, told with the same color sense and the same critical edge. Public projects include a monument for Karl III. Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach in Karlsruhe, the church interior of Maria, Hilfe der Christen in Goldscheuer, stage design for the Staatstheater Karlsruhe and a 2024 video installation on Times Square, New York.

Exhibitions

Selected exhibitions

Solo and group exhibitions from 2006 to today.

Solo

2025
Dunkle Zeiten — Kulturkirche Bremerhaven (DE)
2024
The New Times — Ruttkowski;68, New York (US)
Bäume selbst pflanzen — Rehmann Museum, Laufenburg (CH)
2022
Gruß aus dem Schwarzwald — Ruttkowski;68, Düsseldorf (DE)
2020
Forest Bathing – Biophilia — Ruttkowski;68, Paris (FR)
2019
Handle with care — Ruttkowski;68, Köln (DE)
Stefan Strumbel — Museum Art.Plus, Donaueschingen (DE)
2015
Handle with care — Kunstverein Göppingen (DE)
Stefan Strumbel — Städtische Galerie Offenburg (DE)
2014
What the fuck is Heimat? — Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin (DE)
2012
Heimat — Kunstverein in Hamburg (DE)
Werkschau — Forum für zeitgenössische Kunst, Schloss Neuenbürg (DE)
Holy Heimat — Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe (DE)
Galerie Schrade, Karlsruhe (DE)
2011
Macht Heimat — Galerie Henrik Springmann, Düsseldorf (DE)
2010
Home Sweet Home — Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin (DE)
Deine Heimat — Städtische Galerie, Ostfildern (DE)
2009
One Man Show — Galerie Henrik Springmann, Freiburg (DE)
2006
Deine Heimat — Kunstverein Offenburg (DE)

Group

2024
(o)H Wald — Städtische Galerie Offenburg (DE)
2023
Vor Ort — Kunsthalle Göppingen (DE)
2022
Wonderwalls — NRW Forum, Düsseldorf (DE)
Ruttkowski;68 Mixed Pickles 12, New York (US)
2021
Ruttkowski;68 Mixed Pickles 11, Köln (DE)
2020
Ruttkowski;68 Mixed Pickles 9, München (DE)
2019
Ruttkowski;68 Mixed Pickles 5 during Gallery Weekend — Funkhaus, Berlin (DE)
2018
Ruttkowski;68 Grand Opening — Paris (FR)
Opening of Lichtstrasse — Ruttkowski;68, Köln (DE)
Flaschen für Rottweil — Forum Kunst, Rottweil (DE)
2017
Gartenschau / Gallery Weekend Berlin — Galerie Johann König, Berlin (DE)
2016
Wertical 01 — Michael Horbach Foundation, Köln (DE)
La Rosa by Aaron Rose — Los Angeles Project Space (US)
The Snoring Princess — Salon Schmitz, Köln (DE)
2014
Alles schön und gut — Herbert-Gerisch Stiftung, Neumünster (DE)
Knock! Knock! — Galeria Javier López, Madrid (ES)
Neon – Vom Leuchten der Kunst — Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken (DE)
2013
POTSE 68 — Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin (DE)
Ephemeral — Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin (DE)
Time — CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (CN)
2012
Werkschau — Circle Culture Gallery at Alte Münze, Berlin (DE)
Art Lottery — KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (DE)
Baden! 900 Jahre — Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe (DE)
2011
Geld ist nicht alles! — Kunstverein in Hamburg (DE)
Cityleaks Urban Art Festival, Köln (DE)
Paper Works — Circle Culture Gallery, Berlin (DE)

Projects

Public projects, stage design & commissions

Selected projects in public space and applied contexts.

2024
Videoinstallation, Times Square, New York (US)
2023
Kesselhaus, Social Plastic, Offenburg (DE)
2020
Staatstheater Karlsruhe — Stage Design, Die Neuen Todsünden (DE)
2017
Gartenschau / Gallery Weekend Berlin — König Galerie, Berlin (DE)
Skulptur Triennale, Bingen am Rhein (DE)
Kunst am Bau — Sparkasse Offenburg (DE)
2016
Kunst am Bau — Staatsbrauerei Rothaus (DE)
Public Sculpture, Göppingen Oberhofen-Park (DE)
Kunst am Bau — Fachhochschule Offenburg (DE)
2015
Spende Blut — DRK & Kunstverein Göppingen (DE)
Denkmal für Karl III. Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach — Schloßgarten Karlsruhe (DE)
2014
La Bohème Bühnenbild — Oper Stuttgart (DE)
2013
Skywalkers — Art Karlsruhe (DE)
2011
Maria, Hilfe der Christen — Kircheninnenraum, Goldscheuer (DE)
2006
Strumbel Trees — Franz Volk Park, Offenburg (DE)

Publications

Selected publications

2023
Ruttkowski;68 – 10 Years, Hatje Cantz Verlag, Berlin
2016
Stefan Strumbel, Hrsg. Kunstverein Göppingen, Verlag Kunsthalle, Göppingen
2015
Stefan Strumbel, Hrsg. Städtische Galerie Offenburg, modo Verlag, Freiburg
2014
Stefan Strumbel, Hrsg. Florian Waldvogel, Distanz Verlag, Berlin
2012
Holy Heimat, Hrsg. Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Info Verlag, Karlsruhe

Links

Find more

stefanstrumbel.de ↗ — official website
Ruttkowski;68 ↗ — represented by