Repaint History: From Competitors to Co-Founders
To begin the SVZ Innovators series, Liezel & Pegah of Repaint History sat down to discuss their journey.
By: Nika Bakhtiari & Mary Cate Faulkner
June 25th, 2024
In March 2018, Pegah Kargar and Liezel Strauss launched Repaint History and Art Girl Rising respectively to address the underrepresentation of women artists in the art world. Two ventures, across the globe and totally unknown to one-another, with one shared goal. After discovering each other's work and realizing their similar vision, strategy and thought process, they decided to merge and forge onwards as one organization. Repaint History Group, which also encompasses a number of additional labels, provides artist services such as funding, mentorship courses, gallery representation, and more to empower women artists and create an equal playing field. They also offer a line of cause awareness merchandise aimed at starting a conversation about the issue while working with museums to correct the lack of representation within their collections.
In early June of this year, Liezel traveled from South Africa to join Pegah at the Social Ventures Zone with the goal of shaping their vision for Repaint History’s future, while consulting and engaging with the SVZ’s community of social enterprise experts. We sat down with them this week to discuss their journey, the ongoing struggle that women artists face, and their plans for the future.
SVZ: How did you find out about each other?
Liezel: People in our joint group asked “Do you know Repaint History? She does great work.” And I’m like, let me check it out [...] we decided to hop on a call and it was just…I wanna say love at first sight but we are not married, we are business partners. But it just clicked. We have a 13-hour time difference so it was really hard — she had a newborn baby and it was a lot. But we managed it from day one [...] I just felt like I knew her and vice versa.
Pegah: I’ll never forget, I was talking to Liezel and it was like, the 4th, 5th, 6th session because we, like she was saying, were talking to each other once a week and at some point she was like “I’m just waiting for the curtains to fall” like what’s going on? Why does this conversation keep thriving and why do we have so much in common? And I’ve always said to people, “She is like my soul sister” [...] it’s been a few years in the making and I don't feel different about it.
SVZ: and what made you, as competitors, decide to work together... how did you make that happen?
Pegah: We started working on projects before we actually came together.
Liezel: I was in the USA, and I asked Pegah to meet me. We met, and we only had 18 hours. In the cab to say goodbye, we looked at each other and said, “Shall we just become one organization?” Then we got to thinking about how to work the logistics and we’re still figuring it all out. I think what’s worked for both of us is an enormous amount of respect for each other and our times. We should be competitors, but we were like, why would you compete? We are not in this for profit, we are in this for change.
Repaint History Founders Pegah Kargar (left) and Liezel Strauss (right)
We should be competitors, but we were like, why would you compete? We are not in this for profit, we are in this for change.
SVZ: Being in different time zones, how have you managed being business partners?
Pegah: We’re flexible with our hours, we have the tools online but it also takes discipline for both of us to follow through, to catch up — to do this. We have weekly calls, we have prioritization of who is gonna do what. When you are with someone, with your co-founder in the same place and same timezone, you require the same thing.
Liezel: Being geographically in such different places, we have very different struggles. “You're in Canada, I'm in South Africa.” You're in the midst of winter, and you have to get your kids dressed. In South Africa, we don't have power often. We have power outages, so it’s not just the time zones; it's also understanding the inner workings of a country that can have its challenges. But so far, so good!
SVZ: So how has it been sharing the same physical space, and time zone, this week?
Pegah: it's been incredible, it's amazing how much you can get done by just being in the same place and interacting within the same timezone with another. I'm so grateful for this.
Liezel: It’s been priceless these last few days. And we’re very grateful for the SVZ. We’ve been working here and the tools, the workshops and the mentorship. It’s been such a gift.
Repaint History provides end-to-end pay as you go artist services such as funding, mentorship courses, gallery representation, and more to empower women artists and create an equal playing field. Check out the full conversation with them in the video below.