Fire, earth, light, and space are the elements from which Sabine Classen creates her art. Her sculptures emerge from a simple line that, in the process, expands, bends, swings, or penetrates space with strict geometry. Movement is their origin – sometimes light as a dance, sometimes powerful and clear, yet always carrying the potential to lead the viewer into their own inner resonance.
Sabine Classen’s art unites a Western formal language with Eastern sensibility. Her time in Japan has shaped her work: silence, reduction, and deep reverence for the transformative process of fire flow into her sculptures. This gives rise to works that oscillate between permanence and transience, form and dissolution, matter and metaphysics.
Her sculptures are more than objects – they are events, experiences, spaces of encounter. Whoever meets them senses something of the force through which fire and earth, line and movement, light and emptiness come together in a common language.
2017 Seminars at Kunstfabrik Vienna
since 2016 Teaching and advanced training for Bodmer Ton AG, Einsiedeln / Central Switzerland in the areas of shaping – material technology – surface technology, creation of free art objects / sculptures
2015 Guest lecture at the Ortweinschule Graz / Austria, Master School for Art and Design
2014 Collaboration with the foundation “House of Little Scientists” in Pforzheim, development of artistic-scientific approaches to support children’s understanding of mathematics
2013/14 Summer Academy at Kulturort Guthausen, Schwandorfer Hof, Salem
2010–13 Board member of the Paul Schatz Society e.V., Stuttgart
2011–12 Supervision of the diploma class in Ceramic Design at the School of Design Bern as an external expert
1997–2006 Freelance collaborator at the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe as head of the museum’s ceramic education workshop with responsibilities including: creating didactic content related to the museum’s collection, developing teaching material for school classes of all levels, preparing subject-specific knowledge in a didactic way, and training museum educators at the Landesmuseum
2006 Conducting teacher and multiplier training for the regional councils of Freiburg, Karlsruhe, and Tübingen
2005 Construction of the Atelier-House Karlsruhe, founding of the Ceramic Academy Karlsruhe as an independent educational institution
since 2000 Lecturer at the independent educational institution “Lehmhuus” in Basel, teaching figure and portrait modeling, technique, free ceramic sculpture, large-scale sculpture, porcelain
1999–2000 Freelance collaborator at the Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe, supervision of the Artists’ Action 2001
since 1993 Own studio in Karlsruhe
1990 International Ceramics Symposium Kasse
1986–90 Studies in Fine Arts at the University of Kassel, specializing in sculpture and ceramics with Professor Ralf Busz, Young-Jae Lee, and Vera Vehring
1990 Final examination with the grade “very good” in written, oral, and practical performance
1979–83 Studies in Ceramics at the Free Art School Nürtingen, focusing on object and functional ceramics, sculpture
1976–78 Design studies at the University of Applied Sciences for Design in Pforzheim
2019 Invitation to the “International Ceramics Festival Icheon,” South Korea
2018 “Summer-Work-City,” organization and direction of the project “Free Space for Ceramic Craftsmanship in the City Center,” Unternehmen Mitte, Basel / Switzerland
2018 Solo exhibition at the gallery of Unternehmen Mitte, Basel / Switzerland
2018 Solo exhibition in Guthausen, cultural place and living space in connection with nature, Schwandorfer Hof, Salem
2018 Participation in the exhibition “Argillá Italia” Festival Internazionale della Ceramica e Mostra Mercato, at Teatro Masini, Faenza / Italy
2015 “From Movement to Form,” exhibition at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Faculty of Architecture, Institute of Design, Art and Theory, solo exhibition for the 10th conference of the DGFGG “The Basis of Diversity – Geometry as Foundation and Inspiration of Thought”
2015 “32-rayed Invertible Pyramid,” project presentation at ZKM │ Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
2015 “The Small Form 2,” Stiftskirche Sunnisheim, Sinsheim, group exhibition
2011 20th Karlsruhe Artists’ Fair, participation
2009/10 Memorial for Otto Dullenkopf, former Lord Mayor and honorary citizen of the city of Karlsruhe
2008 “Sculpture and Movement,” installation at the National Theatre Mannheim, with the Movement Choir of the Opera under the direction of Luches Huddelston Jr.
2007 “Tsunami Garden Project,” Monaghan / Ireland
2003 “Present – Absent,” project for the Ceramic Biennale in Kapfenberg / Austria
2003 “Barbara,” sculpture project for the monastery ruins of the community of Langensteinbach
2001 “Glowing Pyramid,” project for Karlsruhe, in front of the Palace for the city’s anniversary with 45,000 spectators
2000 “The Giantess,” artistic design of the outdoor area of the Median Rehabilitation Clinic Bernkastel-Kues
