On Alexander Hohla's Work

To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to harvest..."

Ecclesiastes 3:1


Alexander Hohla refers to himself as a Spätstarter, a German term which literally translates as a late starter. Someone who began later than expected, later than others, perhaps even later than he “should have.”

But looking at his life and work, I am inclined to echo the ancient wisdom of Ecclesiastes: there truly is a time for everything. And with that, I begin with the conviction that Hohla chose exactly the right moment to reveal what he had been crafting for years in the silence of his studio.
He created daily, without validation, audience or critique, driven by a strong inner need to work with marble. He sculpted without external pressures or incentives, immersed in the noise of his tools and the stillness of his thoughts. He shaped what he felt, at once confined and, paradoxically, liberated by the limits of his own hands and imagination.

Hohla’s world lives in contrast and contradiction: from science to art, from lasers to marble, from chaos to calm. A physicist by training, he spent years working with gas lasers in the field of experimental science before gradually moving into the intuitive world of sculpture. It is no surprise that he was drawn to a form of art where precision still reigns.

The massive marble blocks he personally selects from Italian quarries become elegant, deeply considered forms, each one shaped by the type of marble and the line it invites. He leaves grey marble with its matte finish, allowing its quiet shimmer to emerge. He polishes Carrara to a silky softness, while from Arabescato he draws out the vibrancy of its veined, living patterns.