“Painting Today”, which includes the works of 28 artists who think in terms of painting over the last five years, brings together different generations and tendencies in art.
Painting Today is used in two senses in the name of the exhibition: In the first sense, it refers to the approaches to the subjects of contemporary painting and the ways of painting. In the second, emphasis is placed on today’s social atmosphere and the sociopolitical picture drawn by these conditions.
In today’s art environment, where a wide variety of mediums are used, painting continues to open a strong and fertile intellectual space. The exhibition emphasizes that painting is not focused on the market or populism but on a critical basis and reminds us that painting is a medium that prioritizes imagination.
The curatorial process involves balancing subjective and objective elements, resulting in a diverse exhibition that showcases today’s painting trends with its own unique choreography.
Yapı Kredi Culture and Art Gallery Director Didem Yazıcı and curator Burcu Çimen said: “The responsibility of preparing an exhibition program in an art institution provides us with the motivation to make exhibitions on subjects that interest us personally, that we miss and want to see, as well as an artist and audience-oriented perspective.”
It also brings the angle, Yazıcı and Çimen said noting that they care about the visibility of the works of the artists living here and try to empathize with what the audience wants to see. ‘‘With this motivation, we turned our gaze to painters.”
Artists presented in the exhibition are; Ahu Akgün, Figen Aydıntaşbaş, Can Aytekin, Gökhun Baltacı, Taner Ceylan, Antonio Cosentino, Cansu Çakar, Timur Çelik, Fulya Çetin, Rojbin Ekinci, Eda Gecikmez, Leylâ Gediz, Tayfun Gülnar, Hakan Gürsoytrak, Onur Kılıç, İhsan Oturmak, Toygun Özdemir, Yağız Özgen, Deniz Pasha, Kirkor Sahakoğlu, Rugül Serbest, Yaz Taşçı, Sevil Tunaboylu, Derya Ülker, Gülnihal Yıldız, Nalan Yırtmaç, Ecem Yüksel ve Erdoğan Zümrütoğlu.
The “Painting Today” exhibition can be visited at Yapı Kredi Gallery between 17 May and 11 August 2024.
