JD Malat Gallery is pleased to present a selection of works from Contemporary Istanbul OVR. Today we would like to tell you more about the work of Santiago Parra, Hande Şekerciler, Henrik Uldalen and Kojo Marfo.
Kojo Marfo is a Ghanaian artist based in London. Marfo developed his interest in art and visual culture through traditional Akan sculptures and carvings that he was exposed to as a child growing up in Ghana. These artifacts still remain a vital source of strength for Marfo. The motifs in his paintings reference both Akan and Western cultures in an effort to express his experiences and comment on society.
The Colombian abstract painter Santiago Parra has created two new works that showcase his signature one brush stroke technique. Drawing upon the principles of 'automatism', a term that denotes 'expressing the subconscious', Parra creates abstract paintings through an instantaneous approach. In this way, Parra respects his inner voice without doubting it and aims to empower the natural creative instinct.
Here we have a sculpture from the series 'ecstasy' by Turkish artist Hande Şekerciler. Şekerciler is renowned for her figurative forms in bronze, whose inspiration draws from artworks of the Hellenistic and Renaissance periods. Artworks from these periods act as a stimulus from which she experiments ideas of form and social issues through her sculpture. Şekerciler currently has an online-exclusive show on our virtual exhibition platform, PARALLEL. Working closely with GarageAtlas and Ha:ar, Şekerciler is a protagonist in the field of the traditional and the digital sculptural arts.
Henrik Uldalen also explores the human form. Widely known for his expressive brushwork and ethereal figures, Uldalen strives to depict more than a physical conceivable world; Uldalen's classical-inspired figures within abstracted regions of paint are not objective depictions, but rather metaphysical embodiments of the artist's innermost feelings. His latest painting here portrays Hellenistic-like figures within expressive flourishes of paint in an effort to explore themes such as conflict, tension and struggle throughout humanity.
