Gökhan Deniz
About
Born in 1974 in Istanbul. He graduated from the Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education Fine Arts Department of Painting in 1997.
After the 1999 Marmara earthquake, the artist took part in active civil society work on human rights violations and with groups of children at risk. He conducted plastic art workshops in prisons and mental health hospitals.
Formerly, the artist focused through his paintings on the concepts of identity and power based on what people do to themselves and to others. He created a language using universal themes such as evil, sin, innocence and testimony. The figures represented in the paintings mention conscious people who live with their sins in their flesh. The materials and the techniques Deniz used in his works also foster his unique language.
In his recent works, the artist shifted the movement on the surface from figure to space and headed towards nature he describes as "witnessing everything, unique, innocent and sinless". Accelerating his meeting with the inner world, the "Landscape Series" turns into an ensemble of paintings that becomes independent from figures and reflects its own intellectual state. The paintings indicate the process of leaving the representation and hence the transition to a mental activity beyond analogy. These landscapes also invite to imagine beyond the visible with different materials such as canvas, paper, stainless steel and plexiglass.
Selected Exhibitions
2020 – “Never Look Away”, Karşı Sanat, Istanbul
2019 – “Perpetual Motion”, Kadıköy Municipality CKM Culture Center, Istanbul
2017 – “Cabinet of Curiosity”, Scope New York Art Show / Miami Art Show, Çağla Cabaoğlu Gallery, New York / Miami, USA
2017 – “Istanbul Codex : Contemporary Artists From Turkey”, İmago Mundi Luciano Benetton Collection, Palermo, Italy
2016 – “Somethin’ Just Happened”, Solo Exhibition, Çağla Cabaoğlu Gallery, Istanbul
2015 – “Stay With Me” (Gezi Park), Werseburg Museum, Bremen, Germany
2014 – “Contemporary İstanbul”, Çağla Cabaoğlu Gallery, İstanbul
2012 – “Which One Is More Real?”, Solo Exhibition, Çağla Cabaoğlu Gallery, Istanbul
2012 – “Encounters: Turkish Contemporary Art in Korea”, ARA Art Square, Seoul, South Korea
2010 – “Art-Attack”, Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair, Çağla Cabaoğlu Gallery, Shanghai, China
2010 – “Evil Men and Witnesses”, Solo Exhibition, Çağla Cabaoğlu Gallery, Istanbul
2008 – “Relationships”, Solo Exhibition, Kare Art Gallery, Istanbul
