Kelemen Gerstenkorn

Kelemen Gerstenkorn (b. 1999, Budapest) is a Hungarian sculptor. He spent his childhood in Káptalantóti, a village in the Balaton Highlands, where an early connection with the surrounding landscape continues to shape his artistic practice. Organic structures, the internal logic of growth, and the physical qualities of materials remain recurring points of departure in his work.

His first sculptures were created from discarded pieces of wood found in his father's sculpture workshop. The transformation and recomposition of reclaimed materials established an approach that continues to define his practice: sculpture as a process of revealing the latent possibilities inherent in matter.

Gerstenkorn graduated from the Sculpture Department of the Hungarian University of Fine Arts, where he studied under Péter Gálhidy, Botond Polgár, and Zoltán Karmó. His diploma project was selected for the university's Best of Diploma exhibition, while his cast-iron sculpture Masina received Second Prize in the Arts and Art Theory Section of the 38th National Scientific Students' Associations Conference (OTDK).

Working primarily in wood, steel, and cast iron, Gerstenkorn's sculptures do not seek to represent nature directly. Instead, they investigate the structural principles that govern organic growth, balance, and spatial organisation. For the artist, nature is not a source of motifs but a conceptual framework—a system in which form, material, and force continuously shape one another.

His practice has also been enriched by international professional experience. In 2022, he created the public sculpture Poem in Space for the Poetry Path sculpture park in Scotland, and in 2023 he participated in the IRON CASTING symposium in Banská Bystrica, where he further developed his expertise in iron casting. While his work is regularly exhibited in Hungary, his artistic inquiry remains centred on the evolving relationship between material, form, and space.