CURRENT exhibitions
Silk Road Memories
Precious goods, religions, science, and art traveled between East and West along the Silk Road for more than 1,500 years. Located today in China’s Xinjiang region, the oasis cities of Kashgar, Turfan, and Khotan—home of the Uighur people—were key centers on this trade network. Although he lives in Kazakhstan, Hashim Kurban’s art reflects his proud Uighur ancestry, and preserves a rapidly changing cultural landscape. We invite you to explore this unique land of Muslim dervishes and Buddhist princesses.
The Native Lens
A photograph’s “realness” makes it perhaps the most powerful form of visual representation. The emphasis, however, is on representation, especially when a photographer purports to depict the “other.” Edward S. Curtis’s early 20th-century photography of the “vanishing Indian” is a case in point. THE NATIVE LENS is a corrective to such portrayals. Photographs by and about Native Americans tell the complex stories of contemporary Native American lives, beliefs, pride, and challenges.
Abstraction=Freedom
Freedom motivates Turkish artist Dilek Degerli to create her abstract expressionist paintings. Freedom from established forms. Freedom to experiment. Freedom from a life that is often challenging. Powerful themes are expressed in her work—anxiety, struggle, compassion, and beauty. Wielding a highly refined color sense, Dilek skillfully juxtaposes tones and shapes with intention, meaning, and energy. While curves predominate, the occasional geometric form speaks to her earlier career as an architect.
A LIFE IN CLAY: A RETROSPECTIVE
Darby Ortolano has literally spent her life “in clay” – as a young mother, graduate student, professor, and grandmother. Today, as a retired academic, she continues to produce work for gallery and museum shows. Although her 45-plus-year career seems to have carried her linearly from functional to sculptural, Darby acknowledges the essence of her current work was there at the very beginning. We invite you to follow this artist-potter’s trajectory via examples of her nature-inspired artwork and her insightful commentary.
PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG (IRANIAN) WOMAN
From early childhood, drawing and painting have been a source of solace—and escape—for Negin Noormand. Her intimate self-portraits courageously reflect the anxieties, fears, and hopes of a 21-year-old woman living in Tabriz, Iran. Whether uplifting or upsetting, all of her work testifies to her no-holds-barred honesty and self-reflection. They document the ever-changing emotional landscape of youth. In comments to specific artworks, Negin also reveals some of the personal symbols that have offered her comfort. With a nod to James Joyce’s “artist’s novel,” we invite you to visit the first solo international exhibition of a talented emerging artist who believes that “life with all of its pains is beautiful.”
CONJURING IN GLASS & CLAY
“Conjured” is an apt description of Robert Sherman’s mosaic creations—a potent mix of glass, clay, photography, politics, poetry, pandemic, and religion. Created with emotion, they evoke the same in the viewer. Sherman was an actor as a young man. Not surprisingly, there’s an almost performative quality to his current work. Though inspired by the glittering Byzantine glass mosaics of Ravenna and Gaudi’s monumental Barcelona clay mosaics, it also manifests psychic and literal flashbacks to his earlier highly respected mask-making days. Sherman feels the ancient firing technique of raku made those masks “come alive.” Light and shadow conspire in this work to create the same effect.
BINARY VISIONS
American artist Linda Infante Lyons’s poignant icon portraits acknowledge her dual Alutiiq Alaska Native/Russian-Estonian identity. She communicates this elegantly by seamlessly commingling Russian Orthodox iconography with elements of Alutiiq culture. Inspired by family members and friends, and incorporating animals her ancestors hold sacred, Linda’s portraits are a form of visual de-colonization from Russian and American domination. Although she values both sides of her heritage, her work is part of an ongoing movement to revive, restore, and validate indigenous culture.
VIOLATED BOUNDARIES
American artist Larry Ruhl’s awe-inspiring sculptures interrogate the difficult terrain of sexual trauma, survival, sexuality, and gender. He calls his creations “Deities,” and they are indeed powerful creatures to be adored and sometimes feared. Composed of doll forms, wax, religious iconography, antique texts, and fire, Larry’s figures are often non-gender specific, positing an identity beyond the binary confines of male/female. Artful settings amplify the drama, reflecting his exhibition design training. Mining both his own and others’ personal histories, Larry’s icons narrate journeys of ultimate rebirth and wonder.
EVOCATIONS OF GLORIES PAST
Like a modern-day Scheherazade, Turkish artist Ayhan Algur’s mission is to engage his audience in order to preserve a life. For Ayhan, that life is the memory of the glorious accomplishments of civilizations that once lived in Anatolia and the Middle East. Taking inspiration from Arab, Byzantine, Ottoman, Persian, and Seljuk ceramics, tiles, and miniature paintings, Ayhan creates his own visual style in a variety of mediums. He places his interpretations of centuries-old figures and scenarios on canvas, fabric, ceramic plates, and jugs. And accompanies each with a historical comment that the finished piece evoked in him.
BPM
“BPM”—shorthand for Beats per Minute—alludes to the visceral energy embodied in the paintings of Guadeloupean artist Iro Mushoku. A dynamic mash up of image, text, and Caribbean colors, Iro’s work reflects his multiple passions: music, bodyboarding, and personal wellness. Visually dense creations pull viewers in with an exuberant mix of sunshine, urban grit, graffiti, and portrait-like figures that stare back at you with wide open eyes and grimacing smiles. Think the neo-Expressionism of American legend Jean-Michel Basquiat reinterpreted and transported to Caribbean-and-continental France. Then think again.
SYRCLE: A FASHION STATEMENT
“SYRcle” is the title of the clothing collection Dalia Khaddam produced in Paris at the Istituto Marangoni, one of the world’s top fashion schools. Its composite name reflects the collection’s dual inspiration: the war in Syria and recycling. “SYRcle” honors the courage of countless Syrian refugees, many of whom lost their lives. Dalia’s innovative repurposing of utilitarian objects—like blankets and sleeping bags, the necessities of refugee life—also attests to the fashion industry’s growing interest in sustainability. Vogue Italia selected “SYRcle” for a specially produced virtual fashion show.
MEMORY & MEMENTO
Part performance art, part installation art, part textile culture, part feminist statement, JoAnna Johnson’s photographs are magical, haunting, lyrical, poignant—and sometimes suggestive. She’s constructed more than 100 dresses over the past 20 years and photographed them in a variety of landscapes, from the Midwest to New Mexico and Texas. Empathizing with the vulnerability of young girls, when photographing them she unobtrusively documents their time in her dresses by creating an atmosphere of playfulness. JoAnna lets the images create a narrative rather than imposing one. She believes photography captures a moment in time quite different from those moments that come before and after it.
SYRIA ON MY MIND
The compelling artwork created by these Syrian diaspora artists expresses emotions that are often ineffable. Each speaks with unrestrained honesty. Working with candle soot, camera, acrylics and oils, some of their art powerfully conveys loss, horror and hope. Others objectively document an existence now lost. Having rebuilt their lives in Turkey and Germany, they come together here to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Kirkayak Kultur, a Turkish organization that uses art to foster empathy between the Turkish community and their new guests.
ONCE UPON A TIME
Turkish artist Senay Ulusoy’s art is a serious critique of contemporary life, with an emphasis on the condition of women. Her sculptures focus on a world that is increasingly absurd, meaningless, and lacking in spirituality. Using a fairytale language combining both Western and Eastern perspectives, she targets patriarchy, monotheistic religion, and modernity’s obsession with materialism. As with traditional fairytales, her stories have mixed endings.
STYLING A LIFE
Ghanaian artist Musah Swallah recalls as a child watching with wonder as his father cut the community’s hair in the open-air barbershop of his West African hometown. Not surprisingly, bold sculptural haircuts—a popular expression of pride among Africans, Black Americans, and the African Diaspora—are frequently the focus of his striking portraits. Equally prominent are powerful visions of proud Muslim women wearing hijab. None of Musah’s models is the subject of the viewer’s gaze. Drawn from among his friends, art students, and Instagram followers, each possesses agency. And projects a potent message: Black is beautiful.
FORGED & FABRICATED
American artist-blacksmith John Medwedeff describes his monumental sculptures as ‘narratives of structure.’ They adorn public spaces, university campuses, corporate headquarters, and residential complexes. Their distinctive organic aesthetic reflects John’s early training in the traditions and visual language of blacksmithing. Equipped with a unique visual vocabulary, he explores and interprets the natural world through the medium of metal—steel, bronze, and aluminum. John and his studio team are responsible for both the design and fabrication of works commissioned via local and international competitions.
STITCHING TOGETHER ORDINARY LIVES
English artist Maria Walker’s mixed media creations are an homage to working class family life in the 1920s. While browsing in an antique shop, Maria stumbled upon a batch of old letters. Fascinated by her country’s past, and the frequently ignored lives of women, Maria started (a bit guiltily) to read these private letters between members of the Lightfoot family. The humanity they expressed so moved her that she set upon giving their authors a voice. Masterfully combining old photographs and found objects, vintage fabric, buttons, and lace, Maria’s artwork and texts tell the stories she discovered in these once forgotten letters.
KARAGÖZ (AS ART)
Karagöz is the archetypal Turkish “everyman,” and hero of the shadow puppet theater tradition that bears his name (a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage). According to legend, he was a laborer on a 14th-century mosque in Bursa, Turkey. Popular with fellow workers for his satirical jokes, he was executed for fear he might incite rebellion. The exploits of Karagöz and his more sophisticated sidekick Hacivat became the stuff of oral tradition, and have been immortalized in a style of theatrical production believed to have been introduced into Ottoman lands from Egypt in the 16th century. For centuries, Karagöz and other play characters have been beautifully rendered by puppet makers (hayali) and painters alike. We invite you to delight in images of this beloved rascal and his companions.
PLAYING WITH TIME & SPACE
A Mughal nawab gestures with the wooden arm of a Hispanic santo. A young 19th-century girl wears cool sneakers. A dashing gentleman in top hat is paired with a Renaissance lace bedecked lady. Armed with what he calls his “image arsenal,” Gerald (Jerry) Barnes’s collages employ painting and a treasure trove of ephemera—old stamps and banknotes, photographs, cutout images, calligraphy—to create scenes transcending cultural and temporal boundaries. Distorted, enlarged, and diminished people and body parts add to the visual delight (or discomfort). Jerry claims there is no intended narrative. Juxtapositions of color and form drive his compositions. You are cordially invited to create stories of your own.
I DREAM, DRAW, WEAVE & TOUCH
Fabled creatures of ancient Mesopotamia. The Evil Eye. Ottoman glazed tiles. The myriad blues of the Aegean and Mediterranean. Turkish tapestry artist Ufuk Girgic finds inspiration in her homeland’s cultural and natural landscape. Using a unique combination of natural materials of various textures, and knots that are both traditional and of her own design, she expresses her double passion for storytelling and fiber. Discover the depths that lie beneath her misleadingly simple designs.
MYTHS OF MY OWN MAKING
Painter Jim Kopp works with salvaged wood and found objects to create a singular world of fantastic beings in order to tell tales “beyond good and evil.” His characters are drawn from Western mythology, religion, science fiction, fairy tales, and a vivid imagination. Not surprisingly, they often inhabit a landscape of flat earth and tall mountains reminiscent of his Wyoming, USA home. While Jim counts folk art and Western medieval art among his aesthetic influences, he eschews labels. He simply creates “art.” His work is rough, primitive, and although playful, devilishly sprinkled with darkness.
IMAGINED OTTOMANS
A Ukrainian slave girl who becomes queen of an empire. A Pasha’s blue-eyed son who becomes a spy in the German army. A harem eunuch who conspires in the death of a prince. A shipwrecked Venetian sailor who’d gladly die in the arms of his captor. These are a few of the (mostly) fictional individuals whose portraits and fascinating stories self-taught Turkish artist Alper Demirci masterfully presents. In-depth knowledge of his homeland’s history—from the 14th-century origins of the Ottoman Empire to the 20th-century birth of the Turkish Republic—adds authenticity that breathes life into this cast of intriguing characters.
GEOMETRIES OF HOPE & HORROR
English physician-turned-artist Sally de Courcy casts a variety of conceptually linked objects (including human bones) to create powerful abstract sculptures whose geometric repetition and kinetic unity express a spectrum of human experiences and ordeals. The abstract, however, intersects with the personal—whether recalling her days as a young doctor working in a refugee camp, surviving medical isolation during recent COVID-19 lockdowns, or expressing outrage at her country’s current refugee crisis. Seemingly decorative, Sally’s sculptures hide darker and often sinister subjects that when revealed create dissonance.