Review of the exhibition Forces in Stone

KO-KE Space, Zagreb 21 Nov – 5 Dec 2025.
Published in Art Magazine Kontura, issue no. 170 / 171

Over the past several years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of creators and artists who, after distinguished international careers in other professions, continue to study and refine artistic disciplines and crafts, as though naturally resuming a path once interrupted in their youth – for, as we know, art is hardly “a secure livelihood,” yet science and art demonstrably go hand in hand.

One such artist, whose sculptural oeuvre unquestionably transcends amateur engagement with sculpture, is Aleksander Hohla, a physicist and sculptor of German origin with a Croatian address, who recently presented himself to the Zagreb public for the first time at the multifunctional KO:KE Space. After years devoted to researching laser light and the structure of materials, Alexander Hohla turned to marble – a medium that enables him to explore the balance between strength and lightness, structure and spontaneity, science and art. In the accompanying exhibition text, curator Anita Ruso points out that “his sculptures, at once enduring and ethereal, embody both technical skill and emotional depth.” The exhibition presented a selection of works created over the last decade, in which “scientific precision transforms into artistic consistency.”

Dr. Aleksander Hohla, PhD in Human Biology, was born in 1968 in Munich, where he graduated in physics from Ludwig Maximilian University. He discovered his passion for stone in Carrara, Italy, where he still personally selects blocks of marble from Italian quarries. Since 2015, he has been working in his own studio in Vrhovčak near Samobor, where he continues to develop his distinctive sculptural language. It should also be noted that he received training in sculpture and marble and stone carving from sculptor Petar Dolić, who emphasizes that Hohla pays great attention to pedestals, treating them appropriately as an integral part of the sculpture. “The pedestals are neutral, simple, and calm, while also allowing the sculpture to rotate around its own axis. They provide the sculpture with the best possible presentation to the public, enabling viewers to enjoy the beauty of form unobstructed and from every angle” (Petar Dolić).

Closely aligned with the tradition of organic sculpture, marked by pronounced torsions of volume and an abstract variation of the figura serpentinata, Hohla draws inspiration from Italian Mannerism and Baroque art, as well as from certain architectural elements of those periods. These same principles are transposed into abstract forms that evoke birds or the human body.
“The organic quality of Alexander Hohla’s sculpture lies precisely in its inclination toward the clear line and the curve, toward everything condensed from the living body, but even more often from its allusion or metaphor. The rhythmic quality of some sculptures and the static nature of others lend harmony and stability to Hohla’s oeuvre, arising from his firmly established scientific postulates” (Anita Ruso Brečić).