Kadath Fatal

Bohl has previously employed a wide variety of media accommodating found materials and taking the form of free-standing sculpture, sculptural reliefs, friezes, collages, prints, posters and videos. Bohl’s most recent work consists of drawings that draw references from a wide variety of popular and archetypal imagery familiar to him from his adolescence. They incorporate styles learned from, amongst other things, Aubrey Beardsely (1872 – 1898), Métal Hurlant comic books (1974 – 2004) and Blair Reynolds and other graphic artists associated with Pagan Publishing (1990 – 1993). As with his previous works, these drawings employ modest yet very specific materials. The title of this book references a mythical peak where gods dwell ‘in the cold waste where no man treads’ described in H. P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath’ (1926/27). Lovecraft’s novel itself drew from William Beckford’s gothic horror ‘Vathek’ (1786), Robert W. Chambers’ ‘The King in Yellow’ (1895) and the novels and short stories of Lord Dunsany (Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany, 1878 – 1957). Henning Bohl (b.1975, Oldenburg, Germany) currently lives and works in Hamburg. He studied at the Kunsthochschule, Kassel and at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main where he completed his studies in 2004. There have been recent public exhibitions of his work at Kunsthalle Nürnberg and Berlinische Galerie (2013) Pro Choice, Vienna (2012); Kunstverein Hamburg (2011); Artpace, San Antonio and Cubitt, London (2010); Grazer Kunstverein and Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden (2009) and at the Oldenburger Kunstverein (2008). His work was recently presented at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2013) and has also been included in group exhibitions at venues including the Kunsthalle Bonn and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne (2013) Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg (2012); Portikus, Frankfurt am Main and Seattle Art Museum (2011); Kunstverein Schattendorf; Kunstverein Hannover and CCA Andratx, Mallorca (2010); White Columns, New York and Sammlung Grässlin, St. Georgen (2009). He is represented by Galerie Karin Guenther in Hamburg; Galerie Meyer Kainer in Vienna; Casey Kaplan in New York and Galerie Johann König in Berlin.