presented by hometownjournal.eu
in collaboration with AOA;87 Gallery
Sophienstraße 5, 10178 Berlin

30 January – 7 February 2026
OPENING 29 JANUARY 2026 from 6pm

Hometown Journal presents Berlin-born and based artist Benni Kakert (b. 1994).

What began as „A Day in the studio“ in September unfolded into a friendship — and now culminates in our first collaborative exhibition, together with AOA 87 and ARTCO.

Working primarily with oil paint, coloured pencil and mixed media, Kakert constructs densely layered surfaces in which drawings are glued into paintings and passport photographs are embedded like personal evidence. His canvases feel less like finished objects and more like living archives: psychological, social and emotional terrains that have been repeatedly entered, altered and negotiated.

At the core of Benni Kakert’s practice is a cast of recurring characters. Among them, a Dracula-like figure wrestling with desire and pleasure, and Pinocchi, a compulsive deceiver whose deceptions are not rooted in malice but in vulnerability. These characters, next to figures who often appear to be self-portraits, operate as temporary vessels — projections that allow him to externalise, confront and eventually release specific inner conflicts. Their “final portraits” mark moments of closure, enabling the artist to move forward with new imagery once their emotional labour has been completed.

Kakert’s work is deeply shaped by his upbringing in post-reunification Berlin, within a family affected by profound structural and social shifts. His paintings register the fractures left behind by these transitions, situating private experience within broader social realities. Equally present is his time in rehabilitation, which introduced an intensified inquiry into selfhood, control and belonging. Rather than offering linear narratives, Kakert builds emotional ecosystems — spaces where memory, trauma, humour and tenderness coexist. His almost art-therapeutic process transforms personal struggle into collective resonance, inviting viewers not simply to look, but to recognise, project and process their own experiences within his charged, fragile worlds.