We are in Nişantaşı for our gallery walk this week for predominantly solo shows of Turkish artists, mostly spanning the disciplines of painting and sculpture.
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Murat Atabarut's Yeşilçam tree
Start on Mim Kemal Öke Caddesi. Opposite Maçka Park and near the Istanbul Technical University, Maçka Sanat (main image) at No 31 is opening its annual new year exhibition tomorrow with a very fitting work for 2014, which celebrated 100 years of Turkish cinema. The designer Murat Atabarut has created a tree album of the passed stars from Turkey’s film industry ‘Yeşilçam’ era. Please enquire directly with the gallery for prices.
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Şeyda Cesur, ‘Skin’, 2014, oil on canvas, 140 x 170 cm
Head away from Maçka. At No 12, Merkur Gallery is hosting the latest paintings by Şeyda Cesur. For Update, the artist has created works which question the restriction of images. Viewers can look forward to more technically advanced works from the Antalya-born artist.
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Şeyda Cesur, ‘Deal’, 2014, oil on canvas, 150 x 180 cm
Current affairs and their associated images play an immense part in Cesur’s work. The impact of media modernises itself on her canvases. Prices range from TL20,000 to TL22,500.
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Nuri Bilge Ceylan, ‘Sardes’, 2003
On perpendicular Abdi İpekçi Caddesi, Dirimart at No 7 is ahead of the game with an exhibition of photographs by the master filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Making a name for himself as a photographer as well as an award-winning director in recent years, About Looking brings together Ceylan’s enigmatic photographs that are as atmospheric as his films. Please enquire directly with the gallery for prices.
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Cüneyt Aksoy, ‘Şafak Habercisi’, 2014, mixed media on canvas, 140 x 250 cm
Further at No 22, Kare Gallery will open a new group exhibition this Thursday (December 4). The show is entitled Müphem, which translates to ‘hazy’, and as per the majority of Kare Gallery’s shows, is highly conceptual in nature. Works come from all disciplines – painting, paper works, video art, sculpture, photography and performance – and the idea was to for participating artists to ‘open the doors to [their] indecisive dreams’.
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Hasan Özgür Top, ‘Gündelik Hayat’, 2013, light box, 43 x 55 cm
The gallery’s director, Fatma Saka, wants viewers to pay attention to the oil painting by Cüneyt Aksoy (above top) and the photography by Hasan Özgür Top (above). Prices range from TL500 to TL10,000.
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Ali Elmacı, ‘Kill Him Make Me Laugh III’, 2014, oil on canvas, 175 x 220 cm
Even further at No 42, x-ist is hosting the bold artist Ali Elmacı. His colourful paintings depict wacky scenes, but yet something more sinister lies within. The artist says he produces images of ‘ugly and evil’, which for him is synonymous with authority. Thus, the disturbing landscapes showcased in Kill Him Make Me Laugh have elements of what ‘New Turkey looks like’. The symbolism he uses in his über-detailed work speaks volumes about the country’s leadership. Prices range from €2,500 to €11,500.
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Kazım Karakaya, ‘Dogs Series I’, 2014, iron, 134 x 56 x 145 cm
On parallel Teşvikiye Caddesi, at No 131, Bozlu Art Project is hosting the sculptor Kazım Karakaya’s exhibition Transformation. Consisting of recent works as well as 11 sculptures produced using waste materials during a 5-month tenure at an iron and steel plant in Bursa, the show aims to answer the question: Can the same form and the same material carry intrinsically different meanings?
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Kazım Karakaya, ‘Warriors Series I’, 2014, aluminium, 206 x 65 x 145 cm
The recycling of waste materials and transforming industrial production into artistic creations is not the only reason for the exhibition’s name. The series ‘Warriors’ (above) questions the human condition and the ‘transformation’ of human beings. The series, underlining how increasingly normalised violence is becoming in our society, references the dualities of light and shadow, and absence and fullness to reflect the emotions and conflicts that human beings experience. Please enquire directly with the gallery for prices.
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Seo Young Deok
Make your way down the perpendicular Osman F Seden Sokak. Then turn left down the second street you come across, Şakayık Sokak, and at No 37, SODA is hosting the second solo exhibition of the South Korean sculptor Seo Young Deok. For Link, Deok has created five special pieces that are an expression of the restlessness people feel living in a highly technological civilization. Creating sculptures of human bodies and heads out of chains, the artist underlines our links to technology and our chains in society. Please enquire directly with the gallery for prices.
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Gülden Artun, ‘Stop’, 2014, 80 x 80 cm
Head back down Şakayık Sokak, the same direction you came from. Take the second right (Ihlamur Nişantaşı Yolu) and then the first left onto Prof Dr Orhan Ersek Sokak. At No 14, TEM Gallery is hosting the veteran painter Gülden Artun.
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Gülden Artun, ‘Yellow Flags’, 2014, 120 x 147.6 cm
The gallery’s owner, Besi Cecan, has been working with Artun since 1994. ‘I search for honesty in an artist’s work and I find this in Gülden’s work. Painting is her joy and she paints what she lives and observes. That is why her work is so versatile. Her paintings make me think and I love to analyse the psychology behind the contrasts depicted,’ she says. Prices range from TL1,500 to TL17,500, depending on size.
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Key: Blue – Maçka Sanat, Red – Merkur Gallery, Yellow – Dirimart, Purple – Kare Gallery, Green – x-ist, Orange – Bozlu Art Project, Brown – SODA, Grey – TEM Art Gallery
Click here to see the interactive map.