AHMET SOYDEMİR (b. 1985, İzmir)

 

The artist lives and works in Izmir. He graduated from Dokuz Eylül University, Fine Arts Faculty Painting Department in 2011. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in the same department.

 

Soydemir focuses on mental and physical spaces while investigating new ways to develop a series of images of unidentified spaces. The landscapes created by the artist blur the lines between the interior and exterior. It is unclear which and how the images, objects, and places come together, or which are left out. These scenes are established on the tension between being included or excluded. Some absorb the audience while others distance themselves to allude to where the painting physically stands. 

 

Selected Group Exhibitions:  “Consciousness of Transformation”, Simbart, İstanbul, 2023; Mamut Art Project, Küçükçiftlik Park, İstanbul, 2018;  “Cross the LANDS and lens in the eyes”, Zahrada-Centrum nezâvislej kültüry, Slovakia, 2014; "Innominate Spaces” Mieszkanie Gepperta, Wroctaw, Poland, 2014; "Afiyet Olsun / City — Inflammatory State" Survival 12 Art Review, Wroctaw, Poland, 2014; “Hassas Histeri”, Soyer Sanat Fabrikası, İzmir, 2010.

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CAN İNCEKARA (b. 1983, İzmir) 

 

The artist lives and works in Izmir. He graduated from Dokuz Eylül University, Fine Arts Faculty Painting Department. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in the same department.

 

Can İncekara takes the images of everyday objects engraved in memory to a journey from the personal memory in which they reside towards the emotion of the collective memory. Not only does he present the sense of longing that nostalgia causes in a person within a sad context, but also ironically projects the absurdity of being stuck in the past and the incapacity to capture it. Alluding the fluidity of memory he works with detailed watercolor technique. The patterns and objects appealing to personal experiences now awaken the collective and become a part of shared memory.

 

Solo Exhibitions: “Swipe Up”, Match Art Project, İstanbul, 2021; “Memorabilia”, Rem Art Space, İstanbul, 2018; 

 

Selected Group Exhibitions and Fairs: “Reimage: Morning After Dark”, KAIROS Gallery, İstanbul, 2022; “”Don’t Look Back, Deep is the Past”, Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM), 2021; “Kusurlu Güzellik”, Artweeks Akaretler, İstanbul, 2019; 14. Contemporary İstanbul, İstanbul, 2019, 15. İstanbul Bienali Komşu Etkinliği, ‘’Ev’’, Evliyagil Museum, Ankara, 2017; “Mamut Art Project”, Antrepo no:3, İstanbul, 2013.

 

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ETEM ŞAHİN (b. 1986, İzmir) 

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The artist lives and works in İzmir. He studied Cinema at Paris III Sorbonne Nouvelle and completed his master’s degree in Art and New Media at Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne University. He was a lecturer for the department of Cinema and Digital Media at Izmir University of Economics from 2013 to 2015. He has worked as a curator and coordinator at various non-profit organizations. Together with Cenkhan Aksoy they founded Sütüdyo devam, an open art space and an artist initiative in 2012. Since 2011, he has performed with Gizem Karakaş under the stage name Medyartiz. He is also a member of Büyük Siyah Kapı artist initiative. Aside from his video works, short movies, books, and performances, since 2017, he has mostly presented his paintings. 

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Şahin wanders between different materials and mediums for his creations. On the other hand, in his recent works, he focuses on the possibilities of painting. For the artist, ink, marker, watercolor, acrylic, and oil paint are always ready for instantaneous appearances of figures on either a piece of sandpaper, paper, and canvas. 

Solo Exhibitions: “A Couple - in situ”, Gate 27, İstanbul, 2020;  “Crazy Dance”, Kendine Ait Bir Oda, İzmir, 2020; “No Day”; Operation room, İstanbul, 2019; “Sokia, 1936”, İbramaki, Kuşadası, 2018; “Vivienne Noir (Paintings 1943-1981)”, Galeri A, İzmir, 2018; ”Instruments”, Galeri 5, İstanbul, 2017.

 

Selected Group Exhibitions: “Rounded by Sleep”, Arter Dolapdere, İstanbul, 2022-2023; “Poetry is Everywhere - İlhan Berk at 100”, Yapı Kredi Sanat, 2019; “‘NIN”; Büyük Siyah Kapı, 2018; “bkz. Darağaç”; Darağaç, İzmir, 2017; “Amphibien”, Abacıoğlu Han, 2017; “Vesile”, HAH Mekan, İstanbul, 2017. 

 

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EZGİ YAKIN (1988, Ankara)

 

The artist lives and works in İzmir. She completed her undergraduate degree in 2010 and her master’s degree in 2015 in the Painting Department of Dokuz Eylül University Fine Arts Faculty. She continues her Proficiency in Art and works as a lecturer in the same department. The artist participated in various national and international artist residency programs. In addition to her academic and artistic identity, she takes part in many projects as an independent curator and publishes her articles in various art publications.

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Ezgi Yakın's productions are based on references consisting of fragments, traces, and remains of space, architectural structures, and everyday objects that are related to the environment and urban experience. In her artistic practice consisting of painting, photography, and installation, she is concerned with the visual and intellectual possibilities of what is incompatible with or residual to the structural order in everyday life. While examining the relationship between the whole-part, static-variable, function-dysfunction, and the dynamics between the formal elements that fix and support and the fluid elements come to the fore.  With an alternative perspective that supports the imagination, she transforms the visual aesthetics that have occurred with the effects of time in the constructions that were designed with an intellectual and political agenda. 

Solo Exhibitions: “Juncture”, Tabacka Kulturfabrik, Slovakia, 2019; “Stranger Time” Simbart Project, İstanbul, 2019. 

 

Selected Group Exhibitions: “Cracking the Door Open”, Nazım Hikmet Kültürevi, Bursa, 2022; “Temas”, Darağaç, İzmir, 2021; “Changing Perspective”, Simbart Project, İstanbul, 2020; “Traces” Galeri Mod, İstanbul, 2019; “Young New Different 9” Zilberman Galeri, İstanbul 2018; “Atopos Project”, Versus Art Project, İstanbul, 2018.

 

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MELİS CANTÜRK (d. 1993, İstanbul)

 

The artist lives and works in Izmir. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Dokuz Eylül University Fine Arts Faculty Painting Department in 2016 and his master's degree in Art and Design Department at the same university in 2021. In addition to many group exhibitions she took part in, she has also published her works in national and international digital/print publications.

 

In her photography-based works, Cantürk investigates form by establishing her practice on the image as well as organic, and inorganic materials. The aim of the artist is not to reach the photograph; it is to create a new language using photography as a medium. Aiming to create manipulation, deformation, form, and a new language over the usual image, she produces with an experimental attitude. Rather than documenting a snapshot clearly with the rapidness and technological tools provided by the dominant digital environment, she attributes importance to transforming the process into a more ambiguous and pictorial language. Instead of the reproducible image, she achieves a unique result with the interventions she applies.

 

Selected Group Exhibitions: “Lens 19”, Mixer Galeri, İstanbul, 2019; Artweeks & Akaretler, Mixer Galeri, İstanbul, 2019; Rotary Art Competition, Elgiz Müzesi, İstanbul, 2019; “Melancholy”, Ahmet Adnan Saygun Sanat Merkezi, İzmir; “Unites”, Piyaleoğlu Han, İzmir, 2018; “Mekân Atölye: Taktiksel Duruş”, Cer Modern, Ankara, 2017; Contemporary İstanbul & Mixer Arts, İstanbul, 2016; “Denemeler”, Kendine Ait Bir Oda, İzmir, 2016. 

 

Selected Publications: Make8eliev Magazin, Şikago, ABD, 2017;  Phroom Magazin; İtalya, 2017; In Pursuit Of Error, İngiltere, 2018; VOID - İstanbul Photobook Fest Workshop, Fuam / İstanbul, 2018; Psikeart / Anılar ve Bellek, 2020.

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TUĞÇE AKAY (b. 1992, İzmir)

 

The artist lives and works in Izmir. She graduated from Dokuz Eylül Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting in 2016. In addition to her own artistic practice, she participates in collective works.

 

In her paintings, the artist creates new compositions with the objects, figures, and places she chooses from old photographs deteriorating their initial structure. Her works open new subtle (weightless) spaces that are longed after and reconstructed as reflections of daily scenes and experiences. She hopes these new frames that she cautiously produces as paintings reminiscence a paused movie scene, a familiar memory, or perhaps a place where one wants to be.   
 

Selected Group Exhibitions: “Memory and Story” Kendine Ait Bir Oda, İzmir, 2019; “Darağaç ıv: Lüzum”, İzmir 2019; “Those we don’t speak of” , hayyopenspace, İzmir, 2019; Darağaç III, İzmir, 2018; bkz. darağaç, İzmir, 2017, “Difenbahya: Büyüyen Ada ve Dört Oda”, K2 Residence, İzmir,  2015, “Inside the Cycle”, Koridor Galeri, İzmir, 2014; Turgut Pura Foundation.