Leila Heller Gallery is pleased to present a selection of works by Melis Buyruk, Alaattin Efe, Naeemeh Kazemi, Maryam Lamei, Arash Nazari, and Behrang Samadzadegan for the 18th Edition of Contemporary Istanbul, booth T7-09.
Melis Buyruk is a Turkish artist born in Gölcük in 1984. Her large-scale floral ceramic sculptures depart from contained, categorical forms of pottery, and celebrate the traditionally feminized discipline. Buyruk graduated from the Ceramic Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Selçuk University in 2007, and has exhibited across Turkey, in New York City, and Dubai. Melis Buyruk identifies and subtly blends patterns of vegetation and the natural world, creating porcelain flower fields. They are disorienting, as they evoke both artificiality and illusion in a play on logic. While strikingly realistic and incredibly meticulous, the porcelain flowers are unfeasibly monochrome, hybrid, and eerily level, suggesting an alien environment. Fluctuating between boundaries of reality and surreality, her work reminds the viewer of our fractured and disjointed relationship with nature, and provokes a double consciousness.
Melis Buyruk, "Reflected Bloom," 2023, 223 x 185 cm , Stainless steel, porcelain Behrang Samadzadegan is an Iranian artist, curator, and professor. In his works, Behrang seeks to probe the possibility (or impossibility) of representing truth, identity, and history within the framework of aesthetic laws and to challenge the capacity of the image for displaying these concepts. As a scholar and curator, he enjoys discovering and studying new artistic phenomena and believes in rethinking and challenging the established rules and requirements of art. Painting has been Samadzadegan's main focus. The subject matters of his works are drawn from images and narratives of contemporary Iranian history, which he combines with fictional stories and the aesthetics of painting. His goal, however, is not to represent historical narratives. The image of history, he believes, is a personal matter created under the influence of visual and aesthetic stereotypes, a combination of confusion, chaos, and a futile quest for reaching unattainable truth.
Behrang Samadzadegan, "Fritillaria imperialis," 2022, 130 x 200 cm, Watercolor on paper
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Naeemeh Kazemi (b.1981, Tehran, Iran) is a visual artist who has an MA in painting. In her "LaLaLand" series, Kazemi reflects her feelings and anxieties towards the world, exacerbated by the Covid pandemic quarantine instated since March 2020. Kazemi creates an oasis sheltered from these fears in this series. A "LaLaLand," clearly fictitious, but serving as a safe haven from the uncertain world. Ultimately, through these symbols, themes, and meanings, Kazemi is questioning life itself. For Kazemi, her works are not set in a final reality. She explores the system of meanings and understands that it is constantly changing and new realities are born every day. While first brought upon by the uncertainties of social and personal health by the pandemic, her investigation of finding meaning in life remains true for past, present, and future generations. |
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Naeemeh Kazemi, "Untitled (LaLaLand Series)," 2023, 170 x 250 cm, Oil on canvas |
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Arash Nazari is an Iranian painter who uses a combination of Negārgari's (Iranian painting) colors. It is as if an interpretation of Negārgari has been thrown from the past to the present. If we accept that contemporary art seeks form instead of theme, in these paintings we see the neutralization of theme and attention to form. Colors emerge more purely in these horizontal lines. It is as if someone examines the nature of dyes used in Negārgari in a chemistry laboratory. |
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Arash Nazari, "Haroun Al Rashid in Bath," 2023, 150 x 300 cm, Oil on canvas |
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Maryam Lamei is an Iranian artist inspired by the Iranian origins of "Flower and Bird (Golomorgh)" paintings in her works. Lamei's paintings are a departure from traditional Iranian painting while still preserving its frameworks. They add a modern quality that can better converse with today's world and its demands. In contrast to traditional Iranian painting, her paintings don't necessarily have a spiritual or metaphysical dimension. The subjects in Lamei's paintings are worldly and physical. They transcend the physical and encompass notions like justice, peace, moral salvation, or freedom. This departure from the content of flowers and birds, a subset of ancient Iranian painting, has inevitably led to a transformation in its traditional form and adopted new content and form. Lamei's work bears its own unique signature that can be associated with modern painting. |
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Maryam Lamei, "I Am Like A Dove Flying In Your Sky," 2023, 180 x 250 cm, Acrylic on canvas |
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Born in Konya, Turkey in 1989, Alaattin Efe started his art education at Konya Fine Arts High School. In 2012, he completed his undergraduate education at Necmettin Erbakan University, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Teaching. Since his graduation, he has taken part in group exhibitions and art workshops. His works have already taken part in Turkey's leading art fairs and national exhibitions held in different cities. He continues his life and production in Konya. |
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Alaattin Efe, "Unknown," 2023, 140 x 140 cm, Pencil drawing on paper |
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