Daniel Wagenblast was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1963. He studied at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design under Professor Peter Grau and Professor Rudolf Schoofs. A prize winner of numerous artistic competitions and public invitations to tender bids, today he is one of the established painter-sculptors in Germany.
The artist lives in Stuttgart today; as a painter he has devoted himself entirely to sculpture. For many years, he has been creating his typecast figures and objects in various sizes – made of wood, bronze or aluminium.
In his sculptures, Daniel Wagenblast experiments with real dimensions and accustomed forms of appearance. The interplay of humankind and technology, humankind and animal as well as human dependence on articles of daily use constitutes the central themes of his works. In particular, the figure of the “world traveller”, which recurs repeatedly in his works, clearly illustrates how he plays with size relationships. Man appears as an oversized figure that expresses self-assured global experience.
Almost all of the works of the sculptor are distinguished by the principle of size inversion. Whether sitting on a church or lifting cars, Wagenblast’s figures do not appear to be plagued by fear of the world and of technological progress.
On the contrary, the objective is to seek the right proportion or scale for observing the environment. The artist tells stories of longing and the will to conquer worlds with muted irony. Dream-like portrayals, symbolic pictures consisting of seemingly surreal juxtapositions, but which simultaneously open up new levels of meaning.
Whether mild criticism of hierarchies within the system, subtle attacks on human behaviour or almost cynical statements about contemporary events – in his sculptures Wagenblast portrays the essence of being human in a playful fashion. In addition to various solo and group exhibitions, Daniel Wagenblast has already created numerous works for public places. Furthermore, his works can be found internationally in private as well as public collections.