Art Weeks Istanbul XII

Ayda Demirci

Ayda Demirci is a painter based in Istanbul. Her practice is shaped by her view of painting as a continuous process of research and discovery. She works to create abstract compositions in her paintings. Her focus is always on painting; she is interested in constructing images and expressions independent of an idea or narrative. Demirci’s paintings are exactly ‘what you see’. Ambidexter has presented her two solo exhibitions, 35 Paintings and Two.

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Ayşe Kırca

Ayşe Kırca graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting from New York Film Academy in 2015. Upon graduating she has decided to pursue her career in the fine arts along with acting. Her first exhibition was the “Summer Love” at EkavArt Gallery. As an artist she is telling a story about the point where perception of beauty has come nowadays. Through her monkey figures she emphasizes the phrase “to become a monkey” and plays on the idea of reverse human evolution. She is aiming to bring awareness to the sense of beauty, and the beauty within thyself.

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Hilmi Can Özdemir

Hilmi Can Özdemir (b. 1995, Eskişehir) takes the visual language of old analog photographs as his starting point in his painting practice. He reassembles collages created by bringing together different photographs through his own aesthetic sensibility, thereby constructing a reality that is authentic yet fictional. The oil paint he uses on large canvases transcends the documentary nature of photography, lending a theatrical depth to the painting. Özdemir’s approach is far from hyperrealism, but is based on a pictorial language that preserves the emotional intensity of realism. The artist’s works depart from the universality of art; they invite conceptual inferences through indirect symbols and staging. Objects and figures offer clues that invite the viewer’s own interpretation rather than a direct message. In Özdemir’s paintings, light evokes the dramatic effect of photography, while the freshness of colors and the constructed nature of the scenes create a timeless atmosphere.

After graduating from Eskişehir Fine Arts High School, the artist graduated from the Painting Department of Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts in 2018 and opened his first solo exhibition, “Paradoxia,” at Ambidexter Gallery in 2023. Özdemir, who has participated in various group exhibitions, continues his work in his studio in Eskişehir. He is represented by Ambidexter Gallery at exhibitions in Turkey and internationally.

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Oğulcan Sürmeli

Oğulcan Sürmeli (b. 1995) graduated with honors from Işık University’s Department of Plastic Arts in 2018. In the same year, he participated in the Akbank Contemporary Artists Prize Exhibition and was featured in the Honor Graduates Exhibition of the Turkish Council of Fine Arts Faculties. As an artist who experiments with guerrilla art methods in public spaces, he aims to break thought patterns embedded in collective memory and the discourses that reinforce them through irony.

Sürmeli conceived his art as an inner realm of thought where honesty is liberated from constraints.

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