Stuart Wolfe

Stuart Nigel Reid Wolfe (born 20 July 1956, in London) is a British actor, circus acrobat, sculptor, painter and designer who lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Wolfe is known for his political and mythological bronze sculptures as well as bronze furniture series.

In 1961 the family moved to West Berlin where Wolfe attended the German-American Community School.

In 1963 during the visit of the US President John F. Kennedy and after his famous speech Ich bin ein Berliner (″I am a citizen of Berlin″), the school's name was changed to John F. Kennedy School.

Wolfe remembers shaking hands with the President on this occasion.

After an interlude in Bangalore, India from 1968 to 1970, where he attended the Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Wolfe returned to Berlin and the John F. Kennedy School, graduating in 1975 with the High school diploma.

That same year, Wolfe began working at the Schiller Theater and the Schlosspark Theater in Berlin as a stagehand and dresser.

In 1976 he spent several months jobbing in New York City and New Jersey.

From 1977 to 1978 he lived in France, where he spent seven months earning a living playing music on the streets of Paris.

He also travelled to Israel and various countries in Africa before returning to London, where he completed his A-Levels and began his training as an actor at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

And in 1979 his son was born.

Wolfe continued his acting training in Berlin by taking private lessons with Else Bongers and Otto Sander from the Schaubühne theatre.

In addition, he attended the circus and acrobat school with the teacher Pepe Angoly Ott at the Tempodrom directed by Irene Moessinger.

At the same time, Wolfe gained his first experience as an actor in theatre, film and television.

From 1983 to 1988 he played in five movie and TV productions.

To obtain more financial independence he launched a second career in 1983 training as a physiotherapist at the Oskar-Helene-Heim, an orthopedic hospital in Berlin.

He later specialised as an osteopath with the IAO.

Both disciplines complemented his art work in granting him a profound insight into human anatomy.

From 1986 on, Wolfe began pursuing his lifelong passion for sculpting, painting and design more intensely.

His mother, who had studied stage and costume design, encouraged his early interest in drawing and painting.

As an autodidact, Wolfe found his own way into sculpting, being inspired by various sculptors (notably Alberto and Diego Giacometti et al.).

He often visited the sculptor Waldemar Otto in his studio, that eventually became Wolfe's first own studio.

Wolfe modelled his early figures in clay.

Later he was introduced into different casting processes at the Berlin-based art foundry Hermann Noack, which lead to his modelling in plaster of Paris and casting in bronze.

Since 1987 Wolfe has repeatedly travelled the world to exchange ideas with other artists.

Between 1990 and 1995 his works were shown in a number of international exhibitions.

In 1996 he was invited to several European countries to present his Figuren gegen das Vergessen as a travelling exhibition at different Holocaust memorial sites.

He has had solo exhibitions in France and Italy and worked on other memorial projects in Sachsenhausen.

In 2003 he was given an Artist-in-residence and a teaching assignment for fine art and drama at the Berlin British School.

Wolfe also founded and ran the gallery sleeping dogs in Berlin near Checkpoint Charlie for a number of years.

In 2004 and 2005 Wolfe conceptualised various large scale art projects and installations in cooperation with architects and other artists in Berlin.

His sculptures Figuren gegen das Vergessen (″statues against forgetting″) were permanently installed at the memorial centre Mahn- und Gedenkstätte Ravensbrück of the former concentration camp near Berlin in 2006.

Stuart Wolfe spent his early childhood in London, for job-related reasons the family relocated several times to different countries.

Since 2006 he has concentrated on developing his bronze sculpting and furniture design.

He continued practicing part-time until 2014.

Some of Wolfe's more renowned art and design works were presented in 2014 and 2015 at art trade fairs in Geneva, Berlin and Paris, among them the French Maison & Objet.

In the tradition of his grandfather, a handicraft and design enthusiast, Wolfe also turned his attention to furniture and other objects, establishing his own label stw-design for his upcycling design work in 2016.

In 2017 and 2018 private commissions from various European art collectors have further advanced his artistic reputation.

Wolfe continues to refine his sculpting and drawing style at his Berlin-based studio.

Several of the projects mentioned above were founded or implemented as part of a social engagement.