Lars Henkel
In recent years Lars Henkel has created internationally acclaimed works of art in which he interstices drawings, collage and film to produce a striking visual cosmos.
Lars’s experiments with the possibilities of collage, producing ambiguity on the edges of its contrasting elements.
He describes his way of creating images almost like a medium: he works instinctively, is skeptical about meaning and searches for the mysterious. He catches something, assembles elements into pictures and then passes them on. And he is a real professional.
His world is populate by creatures look like bio-montages and produce an effect reminiscent of an unfinished rendering process that has fled into an artificial romanticism of nature, a surreal, melancholic dream world. As Lars explains, the representations of nature refer to motifs from Romanticism (e.g. W.Turner, C.D. Friedrich or W. Blake) and play with different references from A. Stifter’s nature descriptions to Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden.”
The forest there comes as much from my own experiences as from the myths and images that are a part of our collective consciousness.
The philosophy of Romanticism conceptualized the broken image, or vague fragment, in literature as well as art. Nor does Lars seek to represent nature as an idyllic dream world. In his motifs, inconsistencies and contrasts question the aesthetic facade and make multiple interpretations possible.
Martin tom Dieck
BIO: Lars was born in Rome, studied illustration at the University of Applied Arts, Aachen and post-graduate work at Kunsthochschule für Medien in Cologne where he now lives and works. He was a recipient of a DAAD scholarship that sent him to Portugal followed by another scholarship at the Academy Solitude, Stuttgart. His work has received honors from the Art Directors Club of Germany, Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Communication Arts and 3×3. His clients include GEO Magazine, Universal Records, Ride Snowboards, Die Gestalten Verlag and other numerous clients in Germany.
EXHIBITION LIST (selection):
Literarische Comics aus Deutschland: Goethe-Institut Barcelona 11/02 und Goethe-Institut Lissabon 03/03
Society of Illustrators: group show, New York, USA, 04/04 und 04/05
Heaven and Hell: group show, San Diego und Philadelphia 04/03
artisticUtopia: group show, „La Luz de Jesus“-gallery Los Angeles, 12/04
German Animationfilm: 2004-2006, exhibition and filmshow of “Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen” ( IFA)
in: Tehran, Alexandria, Kairo, Ramallah, Gaza, Damaskus, Beirut, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto
Society of Illustrators: group show, Second Biennial Dimensional Salon, Gruppenausstellung in New York, USA, 12/04
Illustrative06: group show, Berlin, 08/06
SEGNINQUIETI, group show, Oderzo, Italien, 06/07
Illustrative07:group show, Berlin, 08/07
Fetisch & Konsum, group show, Akademy Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, 06/08
NeonChocolate, Waaldminiatur, 05/11
publications (selection):
annuals:
Communication Arts, Freistil, ADC , Society of Illustrators, Illustration Now, American Illustration, 3×3, Illusive
magazines:
DPI, 3×3, Dare, Bant, JPeople, Licht2, Jitter, Dangerous Ink, Novum, ètapes, Page, bloc notes, Designers Digest
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