In conversation with the Visual Art Journal

On 8 September 2026 the Visual Art Journal published an interview with Stefan Seitz. It covers the chainsaw, names like Franz and Emilio, and why humour makes a figure lighter.

Almost every figure starts from a single log and is made largely with a chainsaw. The tool sets the pace, and that pace is part of the work.

“Because I work quickly with a chainsaw, every sculpture becomes a snapshot in time.”

He does not necessarily find it exhausting. The work sorts his thoughts, and the world around fades for a while. He compares it to mountaineering: you follow the path to the summit without falling, and the next mountain is already waiting. The comparison comes from where he grew up, in the Bavarian Alps.

Paper comes before wood. Stefan Seitz draws a great deal, and often only realises later that a drawing fits a particular piece of wood. Anatomical precision is not the goal. Hands, feet or heads may turn out too large if that gives the figure more expression.

The names are not fixed in advance either.

“The names usually reveal themselves while I am carving the sculpture.”

There is no going back when carving. What is cut off is gone, and mistakes are hard to fix. Sometimes he envies fellow artists who paint on canvas and can start over more easily. So he lets the work lead. When he tries to force something, it usually does not turn out well.

“Humor helps me make the sculpture lighter.”

The last question is about Karlsruhe. After training at the woodcarving school in Oberammergau, he put his carving tools aside at the academy at first, so that the style he had practised could recede. For him the academy was an open place, free of the rules of traditional training. The exchange there still shapes his work today.