Titled “Denizin Ayırdığı Şehir” (City Riven by the Sea), the exhibition showcases 41 oils on canvas and three designs on paper, all of which were produced over the last two years. “İstanbul is a motif that has had a high picture value for me, from the beginning of my painting career. In my first personal exhibition, landscape pictures were more prominent. Between that one and my new exhibition I continued my master’s degree. My thesis subject was ‘City landscapes and İstanbul in Turkish painting,’ and I had the chance to explore the connections of my work within contemporary painting. I explore how the matters of city landscape and İstanbul are analyzed in the history of painting,” she says, adding that she was planning to make an exhibition that she could link to her thesis.“The fact that people have to live in a jungle of buildings they have constructed themselves has always made me think,” Alpsoy continues, noting that this was her initial point in her first exhibition. “I removed the human element from my paintings and just depicted the buildings. I considered the sprawling buildings as characters. Because of this, that show was a little bit dark and introverted,” she recalls. “With my second show I made peace with irregular urbanization. İstanbul is like a very tired street girl; in spite of the ugly structures, there is still a deep beauty in it. I acknowledged this and used this conflict,” Alpsoy stresses, underlining that compared to her first collection, the new one is more pictorial. “I depicted the Bosporus through the hills. Furthermore, I included the human figure in my canvas, unlike my first collection. The residents of the city are now a part of my paintings.”
The 27-year-old artist says she remember always being interested in painting. She studied at Mimar Sinan University’s fine arts faculty with painters such as Neş’e Erdok, Nedret Sekban and Ahmet Umur Deniz. She recently received her master’s degree from the same university. She lived in the Asian part of the city for many years, before moving across the Bosporus. “Even though I have traveled to many important cities in the world, none of them moved me to the canvas like İstanbul does. It is related to your relation to the city. I have been living in this city since I was born, and I have a relation with this place’s past as well. İstanbul is very special for me. I cannot carry a city onto my canvas unless I have a relation like this,” she points out.
“City Riven by the Sea” will run through the end of the month at the Evin Art Gallery. For more information, visit http://www.evin-art.com.
