Galeri MCRD presents Dream Sense exhibition of Yücel Kale and Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay consisting of new sculptures and paintings in the dreamy atmosphere of Kethüda Hammam, a historical landmark dating from the 16th century.Yasemin Cengiz Çağatay's visual lexicon, stemming from the Surrealist impetus, predicates on the dreamlike decontextualization of familiar subjects and landscapes; based on  dreams as her main subject.

This exhibition presents new  sculptures by master sculptor Yücel Kale and several digital  paintings by Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay.

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Darkness and light, the known and unknown, are all forces that coexist in Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay's works, creating otherworldly, rich images, regions defined by the outer reaches of imagination, and a nature rendered both familiar and strange.   In her paintings,  shimmering landscapes encounter a floating dandelion seed, which seems to possess a luminous magic. In other works, we approach the edges of dense foliage in an ominous gloom, a torch carving shards of light through the leaves. Flowers inhabit these territories: landscapes full of the fantastical somehow borne of the banal. Darkness and light, the known and unknown, are all forces that coexist in Cagatay's works, creating otherworldly, rich images, regions defined by the outer reaches of imagination, and a nature rendered both familiar and strange. Inspired by her experiences in her garden, Cagatay's works endeavor to capture the poetic imagination, and suggest that moments of reflection allow the ordinary to become extraordinary.The giant  flora unfolds in all its psychedelic glory, it is in these most recently developed works - which encapsulate the surreal and the instinctual within the pop and the decorative - that we find an extension of the artist's practice that is as fresh and provocative as ever.Cagatay's work is instantly recognizable for her signature use of obsessively repeated curvaceous forms - dots and nets- which can be traced back to childhood paintings in which multiplying forms encompassed the universe.

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Growing up in Istanbul with an art teacher for a mother, Cagatay became familiar with art at a young age. This experience kick-started the mental and physical database of visual references that she continues to draw on for her meticulously detailed paintings today. Her artist mother taught her painting and art history as a child, and introduced her to the work of the masters, which inspired the artist from a young age; leading to national art prizes - including a first prize in a nation wide art competition when she was a high school senior. She has studied from 11 to 19 years old in Lycée de Galatasaray, a major establishment having formed the politicians and artists of the country. She had the opportunity to use the school’s art studio on the Bosphorus exclusively. The French influence she received in this centuries old school with a blend of French and Turkish curricula reflects in her paintings. She has been invited to the major art academy of the country, and studied at Bosphorus University Business School; which also taught a rich humanities program.

The artist pursued a finance executive career working as a management committee member for multinational companies, and quit to indulge in her passion for art. She gave herself a tailored art education, living in art centers - Paris, London and New York- and studied contemporary art at the programs of IESA Paris, Sotheby’s Institute of Art London and New York.  She then had exhibited her work both solo or in group at the gallery she co-founded in 2013, and also at Contemporary Istanbul 2014,2019 , 2020 and 2021 and also in Scope New York 2020 with a solo presentation.