Exhibition: 15 January – 17 February, 2015
Opening: 14 January, Thursday, 18.30, Öktem&Aykut
15 January, Friday, 18.00, Gallery Siyah Beyaz
Ardan Özmenoğlu, My Brothers And Sisters, 2016, 56x38x40 cm
Ardan Özmenoğlu’s first one-person exhibition in 2016, My Brothers and Sisters, takes place in two different cities, Istanbul and Ankara, as a whole. Gallery Siyah Beyaz and Öktem&Aykut realize an exceptional collaboration within the contemporary Turkish art scene and entertain Özmenoğlu’s new works together. Different but complementary pieces will be on display in two different gallery spaces.
Özmenoğlu’s work is especially known for its subtle subversion of expression and images that belong to both Turkish and global popular culture. She developed a certain language where she juxtaposed elements of cultural history and the quotidian, that is masterfully blended with the wide range of connotations equipped by her frequent use of post-it notes and neon lights as materials. Of an era defined by the rapid technology of communications, Özmenoglu masterfully moves in a slalom on the slippery basis laid by the abundance of local and global meanings and connotations. Hence, she draws a unique line within the realm of Turkish contemporary art.
My Brothers and Sisters expands Özmenoğlu’s wide range of references and her lexicon for images and material even further. In the exhibition, her critical approach and humor sharpens to clinical ends. Nevertheless, this sharp tongue also tends to lovingly embrace the Turkish mass culture, even in times when it subverts it, her approach is also willing to refresh the daily culture of the overbearing Turkish society.
Born in Ankara, 1979; Ardan Özmenoğlu obtained her BFA as well as her MFA in Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Bilkent University. The artist has attended residency programs at Kala Art Institute Berkeley, Ateliergemeinschaft Milchhof e.V. Berlin, Frans Maserell Centrum Kasterlee, Kulturkontakt Vienna and Glasstress Murano Venice. Her next solo exhibition opens in April 2016 at Osthaus Museum Hagen, after the ones took place in Berlin, Istanbul, New York, Ankara, Vienna, Geneva and Zagreb throughout her career. Özmenoğlu lives and works in Istanbul and New York.
