Horst Kontak

In 1985, Horst Kontak met the wood designer Lüder Baier in his workshop in Dresden. This encounter had a lasting impact on him. Fascinated by the art of woodworking, he was particularly captivated by a finely crafted wooden box. Two years later, he built his own lathe and began experimenting with woodturning. What started as a passion, however, only became his profession in 2017.

Fueled by his ongoing exchange with Lüder Baier, Horst Kontak finally founded his workshop, "Werken in Holz" (Working in Wood), in 2009. It was there that he created his first box from mountain maple, a unique piece that would be followed by many more.

His precisely crafted wooden objects have been exhibited at the Pritzwalk City Museum and presented by renowned design object retailers such as Elbwood and the Remise in Hamburg. They have also garnered attention in specialist and design magazines such as Drechsler Magazin, Art Aurea, and Living at Home.
... For his extraordinary wooden boxes, Horst Kontak received the Von Taube Prize in 2025, awarded for outstanding creative design and the highest level of craftsmanship. The artist crafts his delicate boxes primarily from local woods such as robinia, linden, walnut, and maple. The masterful craftsmanship is immediately apparent as soon as you hold these objects, some of which are turned to a wafer-thin standard, with their ingenious locking mechanism. The lids glide smoothly into the containers when placed in the direction of the wood grain. Once closed, the almost magical mechanism, accompanied by a characteristic sound, invites you to relive this moment again and again.

Horst Kontak consciously gives space to the individual beauty and history of the wood by reducing his forms to their essence. In this way, he succeeds in combining elegance and minimalism with lightness and playful refinement.

Regarding his work, he says: “Wooden vessels, but also other things, are reflected in my thoughts, I see many images, put them on paper, draw, discard, follow an idea and then it starts, always a beginning, just as well…”