Sculptor, painter and stage designer Alexander Polzin’s art uncovers living forms from the depths of inanimate materials. This January sees the opening of an exhibition of his work in London in the newly relocated Maestro Arts Gallery in Riverside Quarter, Putney, a show at Grand Théâtre de Genève to coincide with his stage designs for Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride and an exhibition of his work at Ahrenshoop Art Museum, Germany.

“I believe that when an artwork has left its maker’s workshop, it develops – it must develop – a highly independent life of its own.” Alexander Polzin.

Alexander Polzin’s international reputation is set to deepen further with his work being showcased at the opening of the newly relocated Maestro Arts Gallery. The new gallery, designed by Putney based Architects Mclean Quinlan, will provide the arts consultancy an exciting new space to further show case the work of the artists they represent.

Visitors to the Thameside space will be able to view a broad spectrum of Polzin’s paintings and sculptures, including mixed-media silks of his designs for Wagner’s Parsifal performed at the Salzburg Easter Festival; a selection of works from his visualization of Peer Gynt, premiered in Bergen by the Bergen Philharmonic. Sculptures will include his Mortier Award, in celebration of Gerard Mortier, to be awarded to personalities who do exemplary, leading edge work in music theatre by Opernwelt and the Ring Award, an international competition for stage direction and design.

“I hope this exhibition will show the different angles and some of the connections with other artforms that are part of my work,” comments Polzin. “With sculpture and painting, it is always important for me that something of the work should remain and hold on in time. Hidden qualities are very important in creating this sense of evolving time in art that appears to be fixed in the moment. I believe the ‘truth’ is multi-layered and should be contained beneath the surface of a work of art: there is no longer any single truth; rather, there is an endless combination of truths. Only the view through all these layers can give the whole picture of a very complex world.”

The enduring power of Polzin’s work is clear in his artworks created for a visualization of Peer Gynt, created in association with conductor, Eivand Aadland for Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. Polzin’s work challenges, raising questions of universal character. His aesthetic outlook is informed by his deep immersion in modern literature and contemporary classical music. The artist traces his love for literature and theatre back to his early years in East Germany. “The focus on writers in the former GDR [the German Democratic Republic] was enormous,” he recalls. “If you were interested in the real world, politics and society, then writers were the best messengers. I always looked for dialogue partners in other creative fields and was able to be present at a young age in rehearsals of the dramatist, poet and theatre director Heiner Müller. Many of Polzin’s works have been inspired by musical compositions and literary texts His five-figured sculpture Requiem (2010), created in homage and dedicated to the Hungarian composer György Kurtág, is the subject of a collection of essays by such esteemed poets, novelists and essayists as Péter Esterházy, Peter Stephan Jungk and Moshe Zuckermann. Several composers, Kurtág and Mauricio Sotelo among then, have dedicated scores to him. Also featured is his Triptych of György and Martha Kurtág.

“The challenge of working with music and creating stage designs comes back to the question of time and how to bring a sense of it into a painting or sculpture. Now I recognise the way in which music can change the way people look at a work over time and how a material object can transform how people listen to a piece of music.”