Zeljko Rusic - born in Croatia in 1967 and living in Königsfeld in the Black Forest since 1991 - is a sculptor in a very literal sense of the word. Rusic works with a chisel and chainsaw, always fastening his works from a single piece of wood. Every blow, every chop is precisely placed. Man stands at the centre of his work, coarsely hewn from wood, and yet fragile. His figures often stand on stelae, less as triumphal statues, but rather wisp-like, teetering between self-certitude and a yawning precipice.

In his newer works, the sculptures stretch upward like heaven-bound skyscrapers, where just at the top, a tiny human frame appears - sometimes alone, at others, in pairs or in groups. Is this mankind enthroned on his crowning achievements, or the moloch threatening to swallow him whole? The sculptures allow the viewer the freedom to make associations, speaking to him through their sensuality and fusion of abstract and concrete figurative form.