941 Geary Gallery Presents: Herakut: “Loving the Exiled” (San Francisco, CA)

Herakut

gaze out at us with eyes both sad and resigned, asking nothing of us but a basic empathy.

From the Artists:

We like to see each Herakut piece as the sum of a dialogue between Hera and Akut, a synthesis, a conclusion. And often this final thought is the first line of a new discussion, a new dialogue that will lead up to a new piece of art. That is how we have worked ever since we teamed up in 2004. Over the past years of collaborating, our palette has changed, of course, and we have learned to blend our different techniques, my sketchy lines and Akut ́s realism, ever smoother. It’s actually pretty funny that we do not even talk about the actual painting process. We only talk about the content. Our discussions take place in the world of reason and philosophy. What our hands actually do with our spray-paint is left up to them really. We just focus on telling a story. If the piece turns out pretty or not, is just a side-effect. The thoughts they carry are what we worry about. The messages are what we spend our days on.

To the San Francisco show we will be bringing characters that have fallen from grace. We took a look to the banned and exiled, the abandoned child that first cries of fear and then of rage, flocks of scapegoats, a choir of arch enemies, the outlawed, the out- numbered, the ones that know they are very last of their kind, the extinguished. When will we end up in their place?

Herakut is an artist duo made of Jasmin Siddiqui, born 1981 in Frankfurt, West Germany, and Falk Lehmann, born 1977 in Schmalkalden, East Germany. Their artistic style is as symbiotic as their name, which in itself is the symbiosis of the two individual graffiti synonyms Hera and Akut. A love for traveling and painting for the public eye are just a few of the things of the things Akut and Hera have in common. Their work, however, is based on bringing together contrasting elements: masculine vs. feminine, Eastern vs. Western, the roughness of Street Arts vs. the detail of Fine Arts.

Since 2004, Herakut has painted and exhibited in prestigious big cities like London, Berlin, New York and Paris, but have also spent a lot of valuable time painting the dirty sides of less glamorous cities such as Ekaterinburg, Russia or Campeche, Mexico. Both of Herakut ́s publications, The Perfect Merge published in 2009 and 2011’s After the Laughter have received great success, with the two books selling over 10,000 copies worldwide.

Contact 941Geary

LOCATION

941 Geary Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

Alternate entrance through the alleyway:

60 Myrtle Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

Phone: (415) 931-2500

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