Gabriel Heimler and Anna Proc
Gabriel was born in Paris where he studied at the influential art school Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He then moved to Berlin to pursue a career as an artist. There he was selected to contribute to the Berlin Wall mural project, a series of murals painted by one hundred artists on a 1.5km long section of the Berlin wall. His mural 'Wall Jumper' portrayed a West German leaping the Berlin Wall towards an East Berlin phone box, to start making calls to buy up East German businesses. A political commentary on the events of the time. The Berlin Wall murals are now on the last remaining piece of the wall and are an historical monument, one of the biggest tourist attractions in Berlin. Gabriel's mural was the catalyst for a successful 20 year career with a major Berlin gallery with many solo and group exhibitions. During this time he had work sold at Sothebys auction in New York, helped instigate a revival of Jewish cultural life in Berlin, and created with Anna Proc, an international travelling European art project 'Art Express'.
In 2010 Gabriel moved with his partner Anna Proc to Wellington where they began an artistic collaboration starting with the 'Mover, a large mural on the QT Museum Art Hotel. 'The Mover' celebrates the moving on rails of the hotel to its present location to make way for the building of Te Papa National Museum. 'The Wall Jumper' and 'The Mover' artistically link Berlin and Wellington.
Both murals were selected by the Lonely Planet Guidebook as landmarks of their respective cities and featured in the Berlin and New Zealand guidebooks.
Heimler and Proc's exhibitions for the Kiwi Art House Gallery include, The Beehive in Cuba St, 2011, Happy Pacifica, 2012, Foxtrot around the Piano, 2013, Shadow in the Bush, 2014, Inside View, 2015, All in the Same Waka 2017, On the Road 2018, Gauguin in Aotearoa 2019, The Hedge 2020, Free as a Bird 2021 and Fabulous Dinners 2024.
In 2019 two of their paintings from the 2018 On the Road series were selected to be part of the first New Zealand entry into the 8th Beijing biennale international art fair. In 2020 Gabriel Heimler's Berlin Wall mural's contribution to the history to modern Berlin was recognised when a reproduction was created for the new Berlin International Airport. In 2021 Garath and Jo Morgan commissioned Heimler and Proc to create a new mural for the outside wall of their music venue in Pauatahanui Wellington.
'The Mover' Wellington 'The Wall Jumper' Berlin 'Berlin International Airport Mural Pauatahanui
