Art On İstanbul presents recent works by Erman Özbaşaran, Mithat Şen, Ahmet Çerkez, Olgu Ülkenciler, Evren Sungur, and Ahmet Elhan in the group exhibition Bir Cümle Kurmak. The exhibition can be visited at Art On İstanbul between 12 January – 28 February 2019.
Bir Cümle Kurmak focuses on the ways in which artists think and produce in series. Each artist’s recent series is presented to the viewer as an intense installation, like a single sentence composed of many words. The “series,” which can be examined in terms of discipline and consistency in art production, is considered as a system they create in their own universe, a structure they construct. The exhibition draws attention to the path each work travels within the series and how each series reflects on the artist’s overall practice.
Mithat Şen’s leather reliefs stacked on circular plexiglass of varying dimensions are displayed together on a single wall, implying both the boundaries and the infinity of the circle. Each of the fifteen works continues this alphabet individually, yet together they complete an organic arrangement on the wall. The pieces, elements of the artist’s unique body alphabet, are stacked according to gravity, forming isolated “islands” where the balance of empty and filled space is emphasized and light constantly reflects from the surface. Following the logic of natural production, Şen expands the possibilities of the series in these reliefs, which continue his İstif series.
Erman Özbaşaran’s new paintings in the exhibition continue the landscape series composed of cigarette papers, first used in his May 2017 solo exhibition Umut Olasılığı. The artist creates seascapes with triptychs defined by gradient transitions in brown, black, and blue tones, and a distinct horizon line. From close up, each cigarette paper enriches the surface as an individual landscape, while stepping back reveals the horizon line, enlarging the seascape and adding depth.
Ahmet Çerkez’s new series, developed after his first solo exhibition, is created on long and narrow canvases—an uncommon format in his practice. This format, seen in different periods of art history, recalls Ottoman firman documents, altarpieces, and approaches favored in various schools of Japanese painting. Çerkez presents a kind of “icon” referencing his own art production. The artist enriches this format with texture transfers, found materials, and handwritten elements. Using raw cloth to highlight the organic texture of the surface, he incorporates aged materials and rust stains, leaving traces of time on his paintings.
Olgu Ülkenciler, known for series closely related to literature and history, draws inspiration from Grimm’s Fairy Tales in this exhibition. Interpreting Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Little Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel, the artist reflects the utopian nature of these tales using neon colors. Graphic elements, patterns, and textured plastic materials combine in collages, offering a surreal abstraction through his choice of materials and dense balance of marks.
Evren Sungur presents new works that serve as a preview of his next solo exhibition. In this series, which explores the idea of constructed reality, he produces artificial portraits and landscapes. Continuing his surface research, Sungur works on MDF and incorporates materials like passe-partout into the surface, including geometric cutouts. Landscapes, which had previously appeared only as compositional elements in his Organik Makine and Personator series, are now presented as integral parts of a triptych.
In addition to the represented artists, the exhibition features ten photographs from Ahmet Elhan’s Bulutlar series. The large-scale black-and-white photographs are distinguished from classic cloud landscapes by rectangular color spots and guide lines overlaid on the cloud images. Despite the rigidity of the geometric overlays, the organic movement beneath the surface remains uninterrupted. These serene compositions, with their interplay of spots and color transitions, invite an intuitive engagement with the images.
Bir Cümle Kurmak offers a perspective on the fertility of artistic production and how the series supports the consistency of this generative process.