Ar(t)chive vol. V

Su Alara Acerol

Su Alara Acerol is an archaeologist, art historian and a painter. She graduated from Bilkent University Archaeology and History of Art Department with a full scholarship, she later finished her MA at Koç University Department of Archaeology and History of Art (formerly Anatolian Civilizations and Cultural Heritage Management) with a full scholarship as well. She worked in rescue excavations in different parts of the World. In 2015 she entered Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Painting Department for her second BA. In 2019 she graduated as valedictorian and received first place award from Sakıp Sabancı Art Awards. Since then she has joined many group exhibitions and received several art awards. Her paintings and engravings are in numerous private collections as well as in the Cyprus Modern Art Museum’s collection. She opened her first solo exhibition at Istanbul Concept Gallery in October 2020. She is opening her second solo exhibition with Istanbul Concept Gallery in October 2022.

Olga Alexopoulou

b. 1980, Athens. Graduate of the Ruskin School of Art at Oxford University. Her works have been exhibited in museums such as the Museum of Spyros Vassiliou, The Ethnological Museum of Trace, and Pinakothiki of Piraeus, as well as in solo exhibitions in galleries in Greece and the UK. In 2017, Alexopoulou was named one of the top 50 female street artists in the world in publications in London and Paris. In recent years, her works have been exhibited on walls, in museums, and in galleries around the world. The artist presents nature to the audience in an endless and untamed way without domesticating art.

Yağızhan Çalışkan

Born in Ankara in 1992, the artist is currently working in Istanbul. After graduating from Ankara Anatolian Fine Arts High School in 2010, he completed his undergraduate education with a full scholarship in Plastic Arts and Painting Department at Yeditepe University, Faculty of Fine Arts. He completed his master's degree at the same university and started his Art Proficiency Doctorate program in the Painting Department at Marmara University in 2019, where he is still continuing his studies. He also works as a research assistant at Yeditepe University.

The young artist examines the relationship between human beings and nature on an existential level. With a multidisciplinary approach, the artist, who works in different production areas, sees human creation as nature's effort to understand itself. In his works, without establishing a relationship between time and space, he questions the sharpness of the artificial-natural distinction of human beings and the dogmatic attitude towards nature that develops from this sharpness.

Hakan Cingöz

Born in 1977, the artist graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Painting in 2004 and attended the Lithography Workshop at the same university between 2005-2008. In 2008, he completed his master's degree at MSGSU Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Painting. In 2004, he won the first prize in the "İpek-Ahmet Merey Painting Competition" and in 2007 he won the "Nuri İyem Painting Award". 

Since 2009, the artist has participated in many solo and group exhibitions and currently lives and works in Istanbul.

Saygun Dura

Saygun Dura, born in 1964, worked as a photographer and photograph director in an advertising agency in the years between 1989 and 1996. Since then, he has been continuing his career as advertising photographer in his own studio. Dura, who has given seminars on advertising and creative ohotography also has given the lectures called "Advertising Photography, Studio and Light Techniques" in many universities such as Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Department of Graphics, Bahçeşehir University Department of Photography, Doğuş University Department of Graphics, İstanbul Technical University Fine Arts Faculty between 2004 and 2014. He curated the book and exhibition called “Deep Sea Illuminators”, worked in the photo shoots of the project called “Do you know Hasankeyf?”. Also took the underwater photographs of a project which is about producing an underground map of the cistern, well and waterways in Topkapı Palace. Many photographs of him which went on the auction have taken part in special collections and museums. Dura, who provides training for underwater photography, is also a diving trainer and did underwater photo shoots and workshops in many parts of the world. Besides national and international awards, he also held personal exhibitions in İstanbul and New York, participated in many group exhibitions and panels, appeared in selection committees.

Andreas Georgiadis

Andreas Georgiadis was born in 1972 in Thessaloniki. He lives and works in Athens. He studied painting under George Rorris, graphic design at the School of Graphic Arts and Artistic Studies in Athens and illustration in Orleans, France. He has had 13 solo art exhibitions in Greece and overseas and received major distinctions. His works have been acquired by museums, public and private collections, and have illustrated books and records. As a set designer he has helped design the B. and E. Goulandris Foundation as well as many exhibitions at the Gennadius Library, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and elsewhere. He also works in theatre as a set and costume designer. He heads the art team of Mikri Arktos publications.

Işıl Gönen

She was born in 1977, Istanbul. Lives and works in Istanbul. After graduating from Istanbul Anatolian Fine Arts High School Painting Department, she graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Department. 

In her paintings, the artist invites the viewer to a journey between dream and reality, woven with the language of dreamlands, ancient sentences extracted from some wells and labyrinths, and symbols glazed in deserts. In this process, where the deep world of the symbolic is combined with the artist's perception of the mythical realms, the work itself produces the artist simultaneously with the production of the artist's work.

Nihal Gündüz

Lives and works in Istanbul. Graduated from the Photography Department of the Fine Arts Faculty at Mimar Sinan University in 1996. Completed her master's degree in Photography at Marmara University in 1999 and then began working professionally in the fields of advertising and fashion. While continuing to work in advertising and fashion, she also teaches Fashion Photography at Yeditepe University's Faculty of Fine Arts.

Ersin Gürtel

Born in 1979 in Eregli, lives and works in Istanbul. After graduating from Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department, he completed her master's degree at the same university. 

Gürtel prioritizes figurative compositions in his paintings and paints them with a special technique. In his works, he portrays the good, bad, dark and light features of human beings in different techniques, as well as questioning social roles, identities and cultural structure.

Gülercan Hacıoğlu

b.1960, Bulgaria. After graduating from the National Art Academy in Sofia, she emigrated to Turkey and earned a master's degree in Fine Arts Painting from Mimar Sinan University. She has also been a mentor to many important contemporary Turkish artists.

Deniz Köse

Born in 1981 in Eskişehir, after graduating from Eskişehir Anadolu University, Department of Printmaking, she started her master's degree at the same university and is still continuing her studies.

The artist uses steel construction in her print paintings as a reaction to the unnatural, hybridised nature.

Since 2008, she has participated in many group exhibitions.

Serra Kuşkaya

Serra Kuskaya was born in Istanbul in 1992. After graduating from Istanbul Avni Akyol Anatolian Fİne Arts High School Painting Department, she continued her education at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts Universty Painting Department, and after spending a period of her education at Complutense Universty of Madrid by participating in the Erasmus programme, she complated her undergraduate education in 2015.

She contiues her works in her studio in Fethiye.

In her productions, the artist confronts the nature that has been destroyed by human beings as a result of the destructions created by human beings reflections of inadequacy and helplessness in the effort to adapt. With human waste and artefacts that will take thousands of years to disappear, the ephemerality of our existence and scenes that tell us about the permanence of our traces.

Sema Maşkılı

1980, Edirne. Lives and works in İstanbul, TR. Sema Maşkılı, who completed her undergraduate and graduate education at Mimar Sinan University, Department of Painting, has participated in many group exhibitions held both domestically and internationally since 2001. Since 2006, she has held five solo exhibitions, focusing on the concepts of violence, existence, and ego using the human body in her works and questioning the complexity of human nature through these concepts.

Tayfun Pirselimoğlu

Born in Trabzon. Pirselimoğlu graduated from Middle East Technical University after which he went to Vienna and enrolled at Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst where he studied under Professor Wolfgang Hutter, one of the most important names in the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. He also studied engraving under Professor Sigi Schenk.

Pirselimoğlu held various solo and joint exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. His drawings have been published in a number of magazines. He is one of the founders of the independent art initiative ‘Akademie Genius’ where he has conducted workshops and given classes.

Pirselimoğlu wrote and directed the films ‘Innowhereland’, ‘Rıza’, ‘Haze’, ‘Hair’, ‘I’m not Him’, ‘Sideway’ and ‘Kerr’. He was also nominated for an Oscar for the movie 'Kerr'. He is the author of seven novels (‘Tales from the Desert’, ‘The Album of the Lost People’, ‘Melancholy’, ‘Towers of the City’, ‘Kerr’, ‘Barber’, ‘Surveyor’) and three story books (‘Hotel Rooms’, ‘The Newest Lives of Harry Lime or Praise to the Third Man’, ‘The Other Side of the Desert’)

Gabrielle Reeves

Gabrielle Reeves is a multidisciplinary visual artist from Casper, Wyoming. Her work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at The Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyoming, The Nicolaysen Art Museum in Casper, Wyoming, The Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, South Dakota, Zaratan Contemporary in Lisbon, Portugal, and Istanbul Concept Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey. Additionally, her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, including “Kaybolan Suretler / Lost Forms” at Istanbul Concept Gallery, “The Brinton 101” at The Brinton Museum, “Le Printemps des Artistes” at Sainte Pulchérie Fransız Lisesi in Istanbul, Turkey.
Gabrielle’s art is held in several permanent collections, including the Nicolaysen Art Museum, The Guray Museum in Cappadocia, and the University of Wyoming Campus in Laramie, WY. She has been a freelance artist and art instructor in Istanbul, Turkey, since 2014.

Maria Roza

Born in Baku in 1998, lives and works in Ankara. After graduating from the Fine Arts High School of Ankara, she studied at Hacettepe University Painting Department and graduated with a degree. Currently, she is studying in the Master of Fine Arts Program at the same university.

The young artist focuses in her works on the relationship humankind has with animals and with primitivity, and on the structural and functional features of these relations. What she aims for is to make her audience feel the uncanny atmosphere in her works and still provide them with a safe harbour by nesting them in the pleasing harmony and aesthetics of the paintings.

Coşkun Sami

b. Bulgaria, 1973, currently lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey. Graduated of Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Faculty of Painting, Istanbul (BFA / MFA). Regularly exhibits his work in various group shows, illustrated magazines, poetry books, and theatre posters.

Sami's paintings often incorporate architectural and historical references, while maintaining an affinity for the templates of formalist painting. His limited color palette supports his drawing-based process, making visible an effort towards achieving pictorial and formal values. His work exists in a space floating between the stylistic borders of expression and figuration. Sami frequently borrows forgotten, abandoned architectural spaces from the recent past, exposing the possibilities for the existence of anonymous, depoliticized homogeneous spaces. In some of his recent works, he strips away historicism and allusions, instead incorporating objects, rocks, organic matter, and voids that accompany a horizontally-based perception of time.

Sami's paintings reveal a cynicism towards politics, a characteristic developed from his upbringing. He employs references and motifs of modernity, progress, regress, and the grand narratives of the past. In some of his paintings, he illustrates how the political is reduced to its grotesque dimension, with power struggles, flag-waving, and the reselling of imaginary dreams. His work engages in a hauntology research of its own, exploring how the agendas of contemporary societies are shaped by ghosts of the past.

Yonca Saraçoğlu

Born in Ankara. Graduated from St. Joseph High School, Istanbul. After graduating from State Academy of Fine Arts, Sculpture Department settled in Paris in 1988. Studied at Sorbonne French Language and Civilization Department. Began to study painting, made vocational made ​​trips to various European countries. Returned to Turkey in May 1991. After a happy period of intensive photographing discovered Istanbul and decided to create her own artistic universe. Works in her own studio in Cihangir, Istanbul. Saraçoğlu sees art as an inner transformer, a way of loving life and beings, and a state of resistance. 

Ümit Ünal

b. 1965, İzmir, TR. Graduated from the Department of Cinema and TV at the Faculty of Fine Arts at 9 Eylül University. The short films he directed before graduation received various awards. Starting from 1999, the artist began working in the cinema-TV industry and continues to do so today.

Ünal is the screenwriter of eight films, including "My Aunt", "My Dreams, My Love, and You". He wrote and directed eight films, including "9", which won numerous awards and was selected as Turkey's nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2003. He also wrote and directed "Anlat Istanbul", "Ara", "Gölgesizler", "Ses", "Nar", and "Sofra Sırları". He has published five books, including a collection of short stories, three novels, and an autobiography.

The versatile artist later demonstrated his talent for painting and participated in many personal and group exhibitions.

Kadir Selçuk Yaşa

Born in Istanbul in 1985, the artist graduated from Mimar Sinan University, Department of Painting and completed his master's degree at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Institute of Social Sciences. 

The artist continues to work and live in Istanbul.