PHOTOGRAPHY: ŞAHAN NUHOĞLU | |
1955: Born in the Dağköy village of Samsun. 1967-1973: Studied at the 19 Mayıs high school in Samsun. Worked as a signpost-painter during his secondary education. He began to refer to the tombstones he produced as "psychedelic tombstones" and they became his first 'artistic' works. 1973: Entered the Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy. Worked at the stencil and film studios of the 1970's, and became a member of the '78 generation. Graduated in 1981. Worked in fair decoration and as an illustrator. 1990-1997: Became lecturer at the Mimar Sinan University Faculty of Architecture where he taught drawing, design and narrative techniques. He kept his critical distance to the the idea of 'painting' production and opening solo exhibitions. He regarded award-based competitive exhibitions as speculative, meaningless and comical. He lives in Istanbul. The artist offers the following views regarding his work: "The plane of my painting is the Karagöz screen. My figures do not take their places on this screen like the figures of classical Western painting. Each figure acts out its play, retreats and then takes its place in another assembly. They do not form a whole of symbols that represent a Western idea, they only form an atmosphere that gives birth to spirituality. My figures are the letters of a minimal alphabet, they are components that form connections. The components on the surface gradually link with each other to form a kind of assembly. Although I received a Western edıcation, it is a complete index of images belonging to an Asiatic geography that forms my painting. They do not conform to the artificial space of the decorative images of Western painting that create a three-dimensional illusion. My figures do not cast shadows on the surface, because they themselves are shadows – they do not present a mood, a state of mind, that cries, laughs or suffers – they just appear and then disappear." Solo Exhibitions: 1987: Istanbul State Fine Arts Gallery, Istanbul 2006: Mutterings, Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Artist 2006, Istanbul 2009: Love, Karşı Sanat Çalışmaları, Istanbul |
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© ARSLAN EROĞLU |