Elif Erkan
About
Grounded in a process-oriented approach to sculpture and installation, Elif Erkan’s artistic practice focuses on the affective and psychological associations of traditional sculptural materials combined with everyday objects of contemporary consumerism in narrative constellations that bridge ancient mythologies and pop culture.
Drawing from her background in photography, Elif Erkan’s process involves simultaneously the material event and the material documentation of the event. Her early sculptures are often aimed at the documentation of a performative action such as the shattering of china plates or the folding and tearing of clothing items encapsulated in plaster. As such, they operate as records of the processes whereby forces and materials come into contact with one another to give and take form. Her sculptures preserve spontaneity and the material’s accidental and irrational behavior while revealing joy, fury, depression or melancholy as affective charges of everyday objects and gestures.
The common thread that runs through Erkan’s work is causality, fully embodied as a propositional aesthetic quality through a series of dynamic correlations between socio-political issues, vernacular objects turned into sculptural materials and contemporary and mythological cultural narratives filtered through a radical subjectivity. Whether she reinterprets the Greek myth of lotus eaters through modern day dietary supplements to question whether an object can suffer depression, or turns to textile and mathematics to explore female labor as a form of radical subjectivity, Erkan is interested in setting a relational field where positions of object and subject are constantly rearranged in a spectrum of possibilities.
Elif Erkan (b. 1985, Ankara, Turkey) lives and works in Vienna.
Elif Erkan holds a BA from Städelschule Frankfurt (2013) and MFA from Otis College or Art and Design, Los Angeles (2016). Her solo exhibitions include La Bocca Della Vérità, Ve.sch Kunstverein (Vienna, 2023); What is it that possesses me?, Weiss Berlin (Berlin, 2018); Bag Answers, Kunstverein Heidelberg (Heidelberg, 2017); Ex Oriente Lux, Park View (Los Angeles, 2016); Konzentration der Kräfte, Kunsthalle Portikus (Frankfurt, 2015) and M.E. - I like your backpack, WIELS (Brussels, 2014). She has participated in recent group shows such as Sculpture Garden, Geneva Biennale (Geneva, 2022); To Exhibit in Case of Emergency, Cité international des Arts (Paris, 2021); What Remains Is What The Poets Found, PS120 (Berlin, 2019); Work Loves Me, Lanserhof (Bolzano, 2018); Paroxysm of Union, Kunsthalle Freeport (Athens, 2017) and Capital Debt, Territory, Utopia, Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin, 2016). Elif Erkan was the recipient of a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, with the Hessische Kulturstiftung Grant and in 2015-2016 she received the Villa Aurora Berlin fellowship with the DAAD Travel Grant USA.
1985, Ankara.
Lives and works in Vienna.
Education
2016 MFA Otis College or Art and Design, Los Angeles, USA, class of John Knight
2013 HfBK Städelschule Frankfurt am Main, DE, Meisterschülerin Willem de Rooij
Solo exhibitions
2023 In Bloom, THE PILL, Istanbul, TR, La Bocca Della Vérità, cur. Jennifer Gelardo, Ve.sch Kunstverein, Wien, AT
2022 In The Off Hours, Renata Fabbri, Milan, IT
2020 Where You They Form, THE PILL, Istanbul, TR
2018 What is it that possesses me? Weiss Berlin, Berlin, DE
2017 Bag Answers, Kunstverein Heidelberg, Heidelberg, DE
2016 Ex Oriente Lux, Park View, Los Angeles, USA Lotus Eaters, Weiss Belin, DE
2015 Standards for Living, Maison des Arts, Brussels, BE Konzentration der Kräfte, Kunsthalle Portikus, Frankfurt am Main, DE
2014 M.E. - I like your backpack, WIELS, Brussels, BE (two-person with Megan Marrin) German Engineering, Mixer ArtLab, Istanbul, TR
2013 Warm Comfort, Opelvillen Schleuse, Rüsselsheim, DE
Group exhibitions
2022 Sculpture Garden, Geneva Biennale, Geneva, CH
2021 Delusionoraium V (Adaptation), Night Gallery, Los Angeles, US To Exhibit in Case of Emergency, Cité International des Arts, FR
2020 We Can Work It Out, Renata Fabbri, Milan, IT
2019 What Remains Is What The Poets Found, PS120, Berlin, DE
2018 Work Loves Me, Lanserhof, Appiano Sulla Strada della Vino, Bolsano, IT
2017 Cum-Ex, Kunsthalle Freeport, Berlin, DE Paroxysm of Union, Kunsthalle Freeport, Athens, GR
2016 Home, Night Club, Avondale, Chicago, Illinois, USA Capital. Debt, Territory, Utopia, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, DE Gut Instinct, The Gluckman Museum, Cork, IR
2015 Infamous Lives, Oracle, Berlin, DE The Social Register, Park View, Los Angeles, USA A Possible Collection, Honolulu, Zurich, CH
Career Woman, Holz Kohle Koks, Berlin, DE Villa Aurora Revisited, org. Park View, Galerie Balice Hertling, NYC, USA Cookie Gate, Ellis King, Dublin, IR Caught in the Act, Kriya 3000, New York, USA My, My a Body does get around, Wilfried Lentz Gallery, Rotterdam, NE Lemon Leaves, Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, USA
2013 Soft Wear, Sandy Brown Gallery, Berlin, DE Say my name say my name, Städelschule Graduation Show, MMK, FfM, DE Spatial Arrangements/Acting Objects, Lotte Stuttgart, DE Home Stories, KfW Stiftung in cooperation with Künstlerhaus Bethanien, FfM, DE
2012 Just, in the framework of Parliament der Dinge, Leonhardi Kulturprojekte e.V. FfM, DE BCC # 10 - The GAP, Theologische Hochschule Sankt Georgen, Frankfurt am Main, DE
2011 Corso Aperto, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, IT Pereusel, NoMad Project Display Kunstverein Frankfurt am Main, DE Superposition, Beige Cube, Frankfurt am Main, DE Presentations Winterschool Middle East, Kuwait City, Kuwait
2010 Ginger and the Hood, Meran, Italy, IT Prizes and Grants
2022 SAHA Grant for Artistic Production Sculpture Biennale Geneva, CH
2020 Hessiche Kulturstiftung, Paris Studio Residency, FR
2016 Villa Aurora Berlin Fellow 2015 DAAD Travel Grant USA
2015 DAAD Travel Grant, USA
2014 Fulbright Scholarship Los Angeles Otis College of Art and Design Scholarship
2013 SAHA Grant for Artistic Production WIELS
Residency Program
Stylepark Prize, Rundgang Städelschule Winterschool Middle East, Kuwait City, Kuwait Residencies
2020 Hessiche Kulturstiftung, Paris Studio Residency, FR
2018 Eau et Gaz, Eppan, Alto Adige, IT
2014 WIELS Residency Program, Brussels, BE
2011 Dream Seminar II with Susan Hiller, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Como, IT Winterschool Middle East, Kuwait City, Kuwait, QW
