German duo Herakut balance glossy, figurative painting with muddled dripping paint strokes that allow the colors to intermingle and turn into dirt-stained hues. The two partners recently opened their solo show, “Don’t Look at Me,” at Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. The melancholy canvases — including an impressively large six-foot-by-10-foot piece — deal with vulnerability and shame. The children in the paintings, with their emaciated faces and fragile bodies, hide inside oversized animal skins and costumes. The paintings look as if they are set in a time of post-apocalyptic decay: Each piece is accompanied by a scrawled, textual message of a hopeless future. “Don’t Look at Me” is on view through December 7. Take a look at some work in the show below.
