The Eye by Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay at Galeri MCRD in Contemporary Istanbul 2014

Detail from The Dream by Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay at Galeri MCRD in Contemporary Istanbul 2014

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Contemporary Istanbul

2014

For the eight edition of Contemporary Istanbul Galeri MCRD presents a group exhibition with works by Alexandre Dujardin, Sonia Klajnberg, Özlem Paker, Balca Arda, İpek Yeğinsü, Ayşe Ören and Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay.

Information

November 13-16, 2014

Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center, İstanbul

Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay participates to the group exhibition with her paintings Embrace, Mystery, Deep Blue, Allegory, Pure, Heaven,DNA I, The Eye, Retopia, Chaos, Transcendence and The Dream.

Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay’s visual story of an imagined future or parallel universes is resonant with the ongoing issues and debates, both the philosophical and the political ones, regarding mankind’s perception of the universe. A devout admirer of the master painters of the past like Mihail Vrubel and the futurist Giacomo Balla, her urge to innovate goes hand in hand with a profound engagement with the older art she reveres. Her aesthetic vocabulary including richly chromatic effects is indebted to it.

Aiming at ambivalence, Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay creates complex allegories set beyond reality. Fusing an array of vibrantly painted flora and fauna, she creates an ecosystem inhabited by hybrid creatures. In a visual interplay of the familiar and the unknown, she imagines macrocosmic depths of the universe.The artist wants to open windows to other worlds, and her complex otherworldly compositions convey a strong feeling of intensity. Most of her paintings can be hung both horizontally and vertically, and become another painting.

Yasemin Cengiz Çağatay started to get involved with the world of paints and paintings as a small child thanks to her art teacher mother; and received her foundations from her and her large art history books collection. A major establishment in Turkish art history following a blend of Turkish and French curricula, Lycée de Galatasaray she attended from 11 to 19 years old provided a favorable environment for arts education. After winning the 1st prize in Turkish Airlines’ national painting competition, she has been invited to the State Academy of Fine Arts, but she attended Bosphorus University Business School. After working in corporate management for a decade, she started to pursue her vocation in 2007. She self-studied painting at the galleries, art museums, art bookstores in Paris, London and NYC, focusing also in psychology. She attended art auctions, and the education programs of Sotheby’s Institute of Art London and New York and IESA Paris. She had her first exhibitions at Galeri MCRD she co-founded starting from the gallery’s foundation in 2012, and also had exhibited at All Arts Istanbul Fair in 2013 and Contemporary Istanbul in 2014.