Memento Mori Group Exhibition with Sevgi Karay
The work “Confrontation” by sculptor Sevgi Karay, one of the founding partners of Atölye20, is welcoming art enthusiasts at Maçka Art Gallery in the “Memento Mori” exhibition.
CONFRONTATION
The truth that the body is mortal, is hidden in every moment of our lives. When we peel off all layers of our self and assumptions, I narrate the remaining body’s death as intertwining of the immortality and spiritual energy.
Sevgi Karay
The “Memento Mori” exhibition at Maçka Art Gallery opens on Tuesday, March 1, 2022, at 17:00.
Founded in 1976 by Rabia Çapa and Varlık Yalman Sadıkoğlu, serving Turkish Contemporary Art for 40 years, Maçka Art Gallery continues its second term under the management of Didem Çapa. Maçka Art Gallery is reuniting with art enthusiasts with its fourth exhibition “Memento Mori” in its new period.
Ali Cabbar, Carmen Lozar, Dolce Paganne (Ceren Aksungur), Esra Carus, Fatih Kızılcan, Fırat Neziroğlu, Gönül Nuhoğlu, Hakan Gündüz, Ömür Tokgöz, Rüçhan Şahinoğlu, Serhat Kiraz, Server Demirtaş, Sevgi Karay, Şükran Moral, and Yiğit Aral come togetherto creat works around the concept of death.
The concept of ‘Memento Mori,’ extending from ancient times to the present, is a Latin phrase translated into forms like ‘Remember that you are mortal’ or ‘Remember that you will die. Popularized during the 16th and 17th centuries with the Vanitas movement, this concept has continued to be interpreted by artists who have shaped art history to the present day. The “Memento Mori” exhibition at Maçka Art Gallery, the first group exhibition of 2022, includes various disciplines such as ceramics, sculpture, painting, textiles, and glass. The artists explore the concept of death, creating new areas of discussion around life, death and art.
Quoting Maçka Art Gallery:
In the catalog essay written by Fırat Arapoğlu, a member of AICA TR International Association of Art Critics, the concept of “Memento Mori” is interpreted as follows:
“Death can come through war, natural disaster, epidemic/pandemic, or inevitably by natural causes. So how has the concept of ‘transience,’ as an ancient and universal phenomenon, been represented and continues to be represented in art? Or, in other words, how has the transient nature of human existence in the world turned into an aesthetic expression? Humanity, through a developed sense of alienation towards the concept of death, in other words, by approaching the phenomenon of death with composure, has begun to contemplate the reality of mortality and the value of time with cool-headedness. Because only in this way can the concept of death consciously escape from being just an ars moriendi (art of dying) depiction and turn into a representation called memento mori (remember death) that reminds us of vitality. Two truths stand before us: First, tempus fugit (time flies, goes away)! Vergilius’s expression points to the moments and time that we cannot retrieve, and that time should not be wasted. The second is virtus junxit mors non separabit! (virtue unites what death cannot separate), meaning that in this journey of time, what remains behind the individual is not material objects but virtues.”
The “Memento Mori” exhibition was visited from March 1 to April 9, 2022.
Art Contact 2022
We once again came together with Atis fair at the ArtContact Contemporary Art Fair, with whom we collaborated at the ArtAnkara International Contemporary Art fair,.
Participating Artists:
Sevgi Karay, Almıla Karay, Arzu Ertekin, Atilla Saban, Banu Özarslan, Duygu Ergör Baur, Emel Güneş Atagün, Neslihan Demircioğlu, Nilüfer Şatana, Özlem Başer, Pembe Tüzüner, Sebahat Necef, Şule Zeybek, Yeliz Polat, Paria Pahlevani
Links related to the exhibition:
Elgiz Museum 14th Terrace Exhibition
The 14th Terrace exhibition at the Elgiz Museum started in 2012 with the aim of supporting young sculptors and providing a new exhibition space for sculpture art.
In the exhibition themed “Invisibles,” held from August 22 to November 4, 2023, the students of Sevgi Karay, Almıla Karay, and Pembe Tüzüner participated with their sculptures. 37 artworks were selected by the advisory board consisting of Nilüfer Ergin, Seyhun Topuz, Haşim Nur Gürel, Rahmi Aksungur, Ömer Emre Yavuz, and Meliha Sözeri.
The Invisibles are where we don’t look, where our attention doesn’t focus. But this doesn’t mean they don’t exist. We can only see what our gaze is directed to here and now. Sometimes seeing may not be enough. For instance, when we gaze at the night sky, the stars we see now and there are not actually there; perhaps they disappeared millions of years ago. Yet, we see them as if they were there right now. The visual experience is a continuous representation of the surrounding reality, referred to as ‘seeing. As long as our eyes are open, we only see the world around us touched by the light. Therefore, by simply changing the direction of our gaze, the things we didn’t see or know, the “Invisibles,” can become visible.
In this exhibition, the 37 artists whose works were selected to be exhibited on the terrace show us what we haven’t seen and couldn’t see by redirecting their gaze not to the invisible but to the Unseen.
Participating Artists: Almıla Karay, Pembe Tüzüner
Links related to the exhibition:
Printmaking Art Exhibition
Between April 27 and May 27, 2022, the exhibition held at Atölye20 brought together Yeşim Paktin and our printmaking students, Deniz Erelçin, Emel Güneş Atagün, Sereda Gültekin, Burcu Nakiboğlu, Defne Alp, Ali Alp, Leyla Özler, and Seçil Kinay Yilmaz, with art enthusiasts.
Participating Artists: Yesim Paktin, Deniz Erelçin, Emel Güneş Atagün, Sereda Gültekin, Burcu Nakiboğlu, Defne Alp, Ali Alp, Leyla Özler, Seçil Kinay Yilmaz
