English
Deutsch
until 18.09. | #5115ARTatBerlin | Verena Kerfin Gallery shows from Friday, 7. August 2026 the exhibition “Oh God, Teeth in the Dark!” by the artist Kofi Boamah.
With *Oh God, Teeth in the Dark!*, the Verena Kerfin Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in Berlin by the London-born and -based painter Kofi Boamah. Boamah first attended the Open School East and subsequently completed the Off-Site Programme at Turps Art School. In his paintings, he explores what he describes as the ‘inner mechanisms of human existence’: fear, desire, dependence, aggression and the often absurd ways in which people perceive themselves. In doing so, he seeks what he terms a ‘violent serenity’ – a state in which restlessness and serenity, threat and humour can coexist.
The exhibition brings together small-format works on paper and card alongside canvases measuring up to two metres in size. Boamah works with oil paint, acrylic, oil pastels, wax crayons and ink. Overpainting, drips, scratches and visible corrections remain as integral parts of the finished work. Wide-open mouths, striking rows of teeth, exaggerated eyes, exposed bodies and ghostly silhouettes recur time and again. They seem to be laughing, screaming, threatening or appearing helpless – and often all of these at once.
These figures are not arbitrary inventions. The titles of the works assign them roles and situate them in more specific contexts: Jeremy the Teacher, The Guinness Drunkard, Feral Woman III, The Last Cigarette, Death… and At Odds with the Gods. Other titles introduce religious, philosophical or mythological references, including *Christ the Redeemer with Glove*, *Philosophical Milk II*, *Lady with Big Cross* and *Gomorrahish…*. Through these figures and motivations, Boamah explores questions of faith and doubt, intoxication, death, violence, social exclusion and the grotesque aspects of communal life.
Boamah engages directly with both older and modern painting. Titles such as *Fragments of Goya*, *After Goya*, *Distillations of Goya*, *Man with Head Full of Sky II (After Miró)* and *Whitie on the Moon (after Colescott & Van Gogh)* make these references explicitly clear. Yet Boamah does not simply copy his models. Rather, he draws on figures, moods and artistic ideas, transforming them through his own raw visual language and his unmistakable black humour.
Opening: Friday, 7. August 2026, 5 – 9 pm.
Exhibition dates: Monday, 10. August until Friday, 18. September 2026
Title image caption: Underater Smoke, Oil on cardboard, 84 x 59,3 cm, 2024
Exhibition Kofi Boamah – Verena Kerfin Gallery | Zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin | Contemporary Art | Ausstellungen Berlin Galerien | ART at Berlin
