Anna Laudel Istanbul presents two new exhibitions opening on January 23. Özlem Yenigül’s first solo show, “The Desire to Make a Home Everywhere”, which delves into the profound connection between humans and their surroundings, and “Pressure Point”, a group exhibition featuring works by 11 artists, will be open to visitors until March 2.
A Call to Focus: Pressure Point
Spanning the first floor of the gallery, “Pressure Point” aims to rekindle appreciation for the essence and value of printmaking. The exhibition showcases works by Şerife Şen Akkaş, Ozan Bilginer, Ramazan Can, María Chillón, Emre Çalış, Sabine Delahaut, Engin Esen, Doğu Gündoğdu, Fırat Güner, Aslı Işıksal, and Jean-Michel Uyttersprot.
This selection brings forth diverse techniques and conceptual approaches, highlighting the nature of printmaking as a process-driven and experimental practice rather than one aimed at producing flawless images. By emphasizing the physical labor, material relationships, and time-intensive production processes behind each work, the exhibition shifts the focus from the final image to the story of its creation. Visitors are invited to experience a calm, contemplative engagement with art, celebrating craftsmanship and its organic connections.
Rethinking Printmaking
Rather than prioritizing similarities, “Pressure Point” values the dialogue created by differences, showcasing artists with varied techniques and conceptual perspectives. It suggests that such disparities are not conflicts but alternative ways of seeing, thinking, and discussing art.
In his Diseditioned series, created specifically for the exhibition, Engin Esen deconstructs prints into fragments, reassembling them in patterns that mimic white noise. Drawing an analogy between the polyphonic and anonymous nature of noise and the concept of “multiple singularities” in print culture, Esen reimagines the essence of editions.
In her Nudo series, María Chillón employs burin engraving on Japanese washi paper to create images that explore the boundaries between humans, plants, and animals. Inspired by memory or graphic forms found in nature, her imaginative beings evoke hair, skin, roots, snakes, and tentacles, offering a reflection on the fragility and transience of our surroundings and bodies.
Fırat Güner’s prints explore humanity’s relationship with nature, technology, and time through conceptual inquiries and ironic metaphors. Viewing meaning as something discovered through experience rather than defined expression, Güner invites viewers to engage with open-ended questions. Embracing imperfection as an artistic tool, his work contrasts the meticulousness of digital precision with the organic traces of craftsmanship.
Sabine Delahaut, aiming to rekindle collective memory and unite individuals around a sense of belonging, critiques the increasing solitude and lack of communication in modern society in her series Entre Chiens & Loups.
By merging perspectives rooted in individuals and their environments, “Pressure Point” challenges the hyper-saturated aesthetic driven by digitization and visual inflation. Through their works, the artists propose moments of pause and introspection, whether by reconnecting with nature or withdrawing into solitude.
“The Desire to Make a Home Everywhere”
Greeting visitors on the ground floor, Özlem Yenigül’s “The Desire to Make a Home Everywhere” focuses on the relationship between space, personal history, and the objects within one’s immediate surroundings. The exhibition showcases the artist’s tufting and punch needle wall pieces, sketchbooks from her earlier works, fabric molds of household objects formed through starching, and relief prints.
In her large-scale woven wall installations, Yenigül examines her connection to home by drawing on representations of objects from her own living space. These installations, shaped by the concept of returning to her “first space”–home–feature female figures created with tufting and punch needle techniques, highlighting the intersection of womanhood and domesticity. The vibrant floral motifs in her works can be interpreted as a poetic tribute to space, imbuing it with a unique identity.
The relief prints in the exhibition explore the idea of “leaving a trace.” By combining lace, a ubiquitous domestic element, with objects from her own home, Yenigül creates unique compositions and captures their traces through printmaking. In her works focusing on imprints, the artist uses fabric molds to shape everyday items such as spoons, knives, and ashtrays, drawing attention to the materiality and permanence of objects.
The Identity of Space – The Space of Identity
Through representations shaped by tufting and punch needle techniques, fabric molds, and relief prints, Yenigül examines the dynamics of human spatial experiences. The artist explains: “Every space is in mutual interaction with humans. Interventions are always reciprocal.” In her works, the concept of “home” becomes the focal point of this interaction, serving as the most intense space of influence.
Both exhibitions will be on view at Anna Laudel Istanbul from January 23 to March 2.
