About the Artists

Özlem Paker is an interdisciplinary artist. Concentrating on mixed- and multi- media, her works perform transitions between two, three and virtual dimensions. By using many media together or individually, she provides herself a very flexible and free playground as well as a very progressive one. Paker’s diverse international experiences are captured in the structural and socio-political aspects of her work. Condition of being woman and human, universal interaction, relatedness, connectedness, and existential rhythm are the main inspirational elements reflected in her artistic explorations. She creates a language between psychology, eastern and western philosophy, spirituality and their existential reflections. Stating that the creating process is a spiritual adventure in itself that leads to finding one’s self again and again, Paker prefers to surprise her viewer at first, then to invite her/him into her meditation space to trigger the dialogue. A graduate of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University with a BFA, later she received her graduate degree, MFA in multimedia at Parsons School of Art & Design’s Design & Technology Department. Simultaneously, she has been a faculty member in Product and Communication Design departments. Having lived in New York City from 1992 to 2002, she concentrated on new media technologies, researched the changing face of multimedia usage in art, and developed interactive projects. Paker today lives and works in Istanbul. Besides the American Craft Museum, Istanbul Fine Arts Museum, Art Istanbul and Contemporary Istanbul Fairs, Beyaz Contemporary Art Auctions, Paker’s works are being featured at various art galleries and events, and are being included in corporate and private collections across the globe.

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İpek Yeğinsü  who has worked as gallery director at Galeri MCRD in 2014 is an artist, researcher, art writer and curator based in Istanbul with a focus on media arts.She holds a B.A. degree from Koç University International Relations department  and a Master of Arts degree from Koç University Anatolian Civilizations and Cultural Heritage Management department.In her curatorial practice she embraces a transdisciplinary, site-specific and pluralist/participatory curatorial approach. She curated exhibitions with art galleries including Galeri MCRD and Art 50 and participated to the group exhibitions of Galeri MCRD and Art 50, worked as manager for Borusan Art Center. In her Istanbul City Lights series, the abstract compositions realized throughout the city with long exposure technique at night originate from Yeğinsü’s tendency to “paint with the camera”. In the artwork the camera is the brush, where the observed reality is reinterpreted in an abstract expressionist manner. The paint, on the other hand, is the light itself. While swiftly passing through the city with our intense living pace, our perception of it is more similar to a moving, blurry impression rather than to a static image. The photographs are created exactly in this state of mind; both the photographer and her environment are in constant movement. Beams of light captured by the lens, the majority of which coming from artificial sources, are no longer an instrument rendering the objects visible; they are the image itself, the primary component of the abstract landscape.

Ayşe Ören participates to the group exhibition of Galeri MCRD at CI 2014 with Too Funky, 2014, brass, sensor, LED, unique.

Curator  İpek Yeğinsü examines the themes and motifs of the artists' work and the context in which they were made:

Too Funky, the first member of the interactive sculpture series Ayşe Ören names “Seduction”, is inspired by Artemis, the goddess of nature, hunt and moon. Numerous breasts on the body’s front side we encounter in the depictions of the Artemis of Ephesus, underline the concepts of fertility and abundance. In addition to her breasts, Ören’s goddess has emphasized ovaries and the part of the body containing female reproductive organs is arranged in a way reminiscent of an owl’s face. In many mythological sources the owl is identified with the moon, which is identified with femininity and fertility. Thus Ören’s work refers to all these symbols at once. The work’s frame is confined to the woman’s most eye catching and seductive part.

When approached, the dim light that surrounds Too Funky suddenly shines bright, and begins to propel especially around the breasts. Just like the moon, the work’s texture reminiscent of the moon’s surface reflects the secret light that hits it from another source. The woman assuming all her femininity and struggling to attract attention, does everything in her power to awaken the man’s sexual reflex; she is convinced this is what she is supposed to do. This action actually becoming a reflex and that she appropriates as a function arising from her sexual identity, also happens to be her greatest power. Ören’s material choice, the warmly colored metal, reveals a futuristic approach towards the image of an ancient goddess and implies the mechanical nature of sexual intercourse.

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Information about Balca Arda, Alexandre Dujardin, Sonia Klajnberg and Yasemin Cengiz Cagatay is on their artist pages on this website.