Artist:MELTEM SIRTIKARA
February 3rd – March 1th 2016
Location:Kuad Gallery
Kuad Gallery is presenting Meltem Sırtıkara’s solo exhibition, entitled “Joyful Despair” within the 2016 Solo Exhibitions Program of the gallery.
In her exhibition entitled “Joyful Despair”, Meltem Sırtıkara focuses to the intimate and social relations of individuals, to family notion, to identity glitches, to gaps and impossibilities in daily life, and the eternal search for happiness through her schematic and plain paintings with simple unadorned figures and pure colours.
Impossibleness of Family, Mixed media on canvas, 120×100 cm, 2015
Meltem Sırtıkara’s playful and ironic gaze and the paintings generated from this gaze should be regarded as an indispensable choice against the hegemony of the visual material produced by the current global political and economic order. It is an achievement to find these kinds of paintings with their different significations and vocabulary confronting the common visual deposit and impurity. With their explicit visual information and with simplicity and minimalist approach, the paintings invite the viewer to perceive and enjoy the harmony and contradictions, the attachments and ruptures in today’s daily life and human relations. To the individuals who cannot escape the mediocrity, uniformity and insecurity, Sırtıkara proposes a mental and sensual expansion through a game of schematic figures, arranged on a plain background, with limited and pure colours. The compositions, reminiscent of photography of family, social, and daily life activities reflect a certain “joy and happiness”. The inquisitive gaze of the viewer might discover the desolation, suspicion and insecurity rendered by the empty and undefined background, limited colours and the irony of the depicted moments of daily life. The viewer can feel more than the pleasure of solving a puzzle when trying to explore the meanings skilfully placed into the images. This juxtaposition of joy and despair gives the viewer to ponder on the identity of these figures, on their way of thinking and on the conditions they are living in, which in fact may be the reflection of his/her own life.
Hope, Oil on canvas, Paper, Rope – 90x116cm, 2015
