German Artist ‘Hurd’ Exhibition Opens in Rio at Centro’s Social Wieninger

By Beatriz Miranda, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Through June 6th, Rio’s German-style brewery Social Wieninger in Centro will display the work of Frankfurt artist Hurd, also known as Markus Haertel. This is the first art exhibition in the venue since its inauguration in December.

Hurd (Haertel’s artistic name) is the founder of the art collective Qualitylovers, present in Berlin and Frankfurt. With a degree in graphic design, Hurd’s creative references come from comics, typography, design and animation.

Since 2007, the artist has been adopting a technique through which the image is drawn with the pencil in constant contact with the paper. He mostly uses it for drawing women and multiple faces, which he likes to represent as “a crowd living in a hard situation, like the refugees, people who live in the margins,” explains Hartel.

“The purpose of my art is to translate what I feel in that moment in which I am creating, with the material I have in [my] hands. I like to improvise with the forms and colors, and experiment different themes. I do not consider myself a conceptual artist, but an explorer of possibilities,” states the German, whose inspirations are Pablo Picasso and Egon Schiele.

Venue for the art exhibition, Social Wieninger was launched from the initiative of five partners, who first started to sell the Wieninger beer (a label from the German region of Bavaria) two years ago.

Some time later, the group, composed by four Brazilians and one German (Arnoe Muncke, who belongs to the Wieninger family) decided it was time to find the “perfect place” to host the Wieninger clients.

Lilian Pifano, the venue’s manager,, explained “One of the partners already had a store in the region of SAARA (a commercial region in Centro), and she liked the atmosphere there. The group decided to open Social Wieninger in the area, because the region lacks good brewery options. So it was a bet.”

After Hurd’s exhibition, Social Wieninger already has the next one planned. According to Pifano, artists who want to expose their work in the brewery are most welcome and should get in touch with Social Wieninger’s management.

What: Hurd’s Art Exhibit @Social Wieninger
When: Until June 6th – MON to WED: 11:30 AM – 3PM (lunch), 5PM – 9PM (bar); THU to FRI: 11:30 AM – 3PM (lunch), 5PM – 10PM (bar).
Where:Rua de Santana 141 – Centro. Tel: (21) 2507-7739
Entrance: Free