Art On İstanbul is hosting "Crossroads 4", a group exhibition featuring works by Ahmet Çerkez, Olcay Kuş, Erman Özbaşaran, and Olgu Ülkenciler, on view between June 11 – July 30, 2016. Since its foundation, Art On İstanbul has pursued the mission of supporting the development of young artists, and the Crossroads series opens a space of visibility for this purpose. This fourth edition becomes a meeting point for following the recent propositions, vitality, and explorations of the gallery’s newly represented artists.
The exhibition brings together works that will be encountered for the first time in this context. Sharing the same studio, Ahmet Çerkez (b. 1976, Bulgaria) and Erman Özbaşaran (b. 1982, Çorlu) present a sculptural installation added to their jointly produced “Metabolit” series. The work is created by reassembling waste materials into a solid structure: discarded wood and metal collected from construction debris are combined, and the gaps left between them are filled with concrete, resulting in a 3-meter-high column. Their sculpture Bane—meaning “disaster”—also carries the aura of a monument. While leaning against the wall at a slant, it questions the structures that govern society and points to their unsettling fragility. Alongside this joint production, paintings and drawings by Çerkez and Özbaşaran that establish a direct dialogue with the viewer are also included.
Olgu Ülkenciler (b. 1981, Istanbul), who previously exhibited paintings and drawings in solo shows and installation-based works in group exhibitions, presents abstract three-dimensional sculptures and reliefs for the first time since his work Collapse, shown in the exhibition Heavy Burden at Art On İstanbul in December. Ülkenciler emphasizes the continuity of form in his massive metal sculptures, shaped by the subconscious perception of nature created by the city, using repeatable modular units. In his relief works made with epoxy and polyester, repeating formal elements at varying heights generate a wavelike rhythm on a single surface. His sculptures are accompanied by drawings that intersect with his pictorial memory.
Previously seen in solo exhibitions at Art On İstanbul, Olcay Kuş (b. 1985, Izmir), in his new works for Crossroads 4, experiments with new surfaces such as glass alongside the layers he constructs with newspapers and paint. The artist addresses the dominant language constructed by power and media through the body. He reveals how the oppressive and violent masculine discourse—constantly reproduced on screens and in newspapers—has almost been internalized, where fanaticism is glorified under the name of loyalty and repression is accepted. Through the lens of “football,” Kuş exposes these structures. Despite the dense textures and layers of paint in his works, fissures and stenciled forms emerge in diluted patterns, uncovering the mechanisms of power through the language of drawing.
Crossroads 4, by bringing together these four artists newly represented by Art On İstanbul, also offers a glimpse into their upcoming solo exhibitions in the following seasons.
