HILTON ASMUS CONTEMPORARY
will be open on BLACK FRIDAY
November 29 & Saturday, November 30
CONSIDER A GIFT OF ART FOR THE HOLIDAYS
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HILTON | ASMUS CONTEMPORARY
presents
PAINTINGS, SCULPTURE, GLASS, METAL
CERAMIC, FIBER ART & MIXED MEDIA
BY TURKISH CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS
ANI AFSHAR
MELTEM AKTAS
NADIA ARDITTI
CETIN ATES
DILEK AYDINCIOGLU
YASEMIN ASLAN BAKIRI
CAMEKAN
MERAL DEGER
DINCER GUNGORUR
ASLI KUTLUAY
AYSEGUL KIRMIZI
DERYA OZPARLAK
SEMRA OZUMERZIFON
KEMAL SIRIN
PEMBE HILAL TUZUNER
CHICAGO --Partnering with Istanbul based, ARMAGGAN Art & Design Gallery (sponsored by the TURKISH CULTURAL FOUNDATION)
Hilton | Asmus Contemporary is pleased to present ISTANBUL BREEZE, featuring
sixteen contemporary Turkish Artists, two of whom reside in Chicago.
The show consists of three-dimensional works in glass, metal, bronze,
fiber art, mixed media, paintings and photography. A uniting
factor with the artists appears to be a thread of the feminine,
although many of the works themselves are not what we would consider
feminine in the least. Whether it is a symbolist painting, marble and
bronze sculptures dedicated to the transcendence of the human spirit,
fabric and glass that show an ephemeral nature, or photographs of
fisherman, the works speak volumes about the roles of men and women in a
male dominated society. The artists, all Turkish but each with their
own distinct intercultural backgrounds, are an amalgam of Bulgarian,
Greek, Circassian, Cypriot, Armenian, Sephardic Jew, European and Asian
descent. Much like the United States, Turkey is a melting pot of
different races, religions and cultures.
The Turkish art market
has been progressively blossoming into a global market. Nearly a
decade earlier, the country was in economic crisis. Today Turkey has
become the second fastest growing economy in the world after China. The
local art scene has experienced a boom in new art institutions since
2004, from galleries, artist-run spaces, privately funded museums and
art centers, to art fairs and auctions. Compared to art markets in the
Middle-East and India - the Turkish art market is more developed, with a
solid infrastructure to support the growing art scene. With Istanbul
being named the European Capital of Culture in 2010, further art
infrastructure support and investment has blossomed. In 2009, London
Sotheby's had it first ever auction of Turkish Modern Art. The following
year, the sales
doubled. Modern Turkish art is in high demand, in Turkey and
internationally, but Turks also have a global perspective and are
collecting artists from abroad. Turkey's transformation is not only
economic, but also cultural, especially since the launch of the Istanbul
Biennal Contemporary Art in 1987.
About the art & artists:
Standing nearly five feet tall, a central figure of the exhibition is a "Guardian Angel" by Yasemin Aslan Bakiri,
a native of Istanbul. The Angel is created from metal, glass, steel
wool and silver mesh to show the spiritual side of Istanbul's past
civilizations. Known for her glass and mesh "Kaftans," Aslan Bakiri
creates
a visual game made from layers of hot glass formed manually and
spontaneously before giving the glass the chance to cool. Her mother
knits the field where the glass is attached to the background.
Another cornerstone of the exhibit is Meral Deger's CORNUCOPIA. Apropos for the holiday season, Deger's glass
techniques suggest a powerful study of an ephemeral medium. Deger
recently won an award at the Venice Architecture Biennale in the Murano
section. For this exhibition, she has created a series of hand blown
glass Cornucopias (Horns of Plenty) that seem to rise, as if reaching
towards the sky. They are ecstatic symbols of the human spirit that
transcends worlds and are grounded all at once.
Chicago artists, Ani Afshar and Meltem Aktas were
both born in Istanbul. Aktas, is known for her majestic iconography in
many of the churches throughout the United States. Aside from Turkish
miniatures and Sufi mysticism, Aktas draws inspiration from Flemish
painting, New Mexican retablos and the poetry of St. John of the Cross
and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Two smallSufi Mystic images on wood, painted
much like her signature Byzantine icon style in which she mixes her own
paints from egg tempura and applies gold leaf will be on display.
Fiber artist, Ani Afshar, coming off of an
exhibition at the Hyde Park Art Center in September 2012 and at Hilton
Asmus Contemporary last April, has created a tulle composition, "Layers
of Shine & Shadow," for the exhibition. She is currently preparing
for an exhibition of her weavings"Interlacing Threads: Traditional
Techniques | Contemporary Perspectives," to be held at Columbia College
in January 2014.
Dincer Gungorur, hailing from the Central Mediterranean region, embraces a figurative style reminiscent
of the female fertility figures of ancient history using locally mined
marbles for his figures. Perhaps he has been to the ancient Hittite
archaeological site in the southeastern part of Turkey where the
references to a matriarchal society is blatant. Where Gungorur forms
grounded weighty figures of female goddesses, Derya Ozparlak
chases metal into light airy forms of female figures floating through
the sky lifted by colorful balloons. Her main objective is joy. And as
such, her girls are happy, light and weightless, as if to say, this is
what life should be, and for Ozparlak, it is.
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HILTON | ASMUS
CONTEMPORARY
specializes in
contemporary paintings, works on paper, fiber art, sculpture and
photography. Featuring Chicago based artists, as well as internationally
known artists from the Mediterranean Region such as Turkey, Greece,
Italy, and the Middle East.
Located in the River North Art District, the gallery is at the corner of Wells and Superior (between PROSECCO, a fine dining Italian restaurant,
and THE BOARDING HOUSE)
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DECEMBER EVENTS
DECEMBER 12:
program by
SEL YACKLEY
Join us December 12 for a presentation by award winning journalist and traveler, Sel Yackley, about adventure tours to Turkey.
Arica Hilton & Sven Asmus
will
lead an art tour in 2014 to Istanbul, accompanied by architects,
artists, poets and professors of art history & literature to
galleries, artists studios, museums and more.
Artists
& gallerists will open their homes and studios, workshops and
kitchens for a dining and aesthetic experience unparalleled in travel.
After
our tour of Istanbul, we will go on a BLUE VOYAGE on the Aegean &
Mediterranean waters, also known as the Turkish Riviera and the
Turquoise Coast, on a gulet, a traditional 2 or 3 mast wooden sailing
vessel.
Come learn more about the history, culture and art of one of the most ancient civilizations.
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1. ST. NICHOLAS, also known as Santa Claus, was born in Patara and became the bishop of Myra (what is now Demre,on Turkey's Mediterranean Coast.)
He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in
the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model
for Santa Claus, whose modern name comes from the Dutch Sinterklaas
2. According to Wine
Spectator Magazine, mankind's long history of cultivating grapes for
wine began in southeast Anatolia, located in modern-day Turkey.
3. Turks introduced coffee to Europe.
5. The oldest church built by man ( St. Peter's Church) is in Antioch ( Antakya) Turkey. 6. The oldest known human settlement was found in Catalhoyuk,Turkey 7000 years ago.
8. Istanbul is the only city (and Turkey the only country) spanning two continents.
10. Writing was first used by people in ancient Anatolia. The first clay tablets in the ruins of Assyrian Karum (Merchant Colony) date back to 1950 B.C.
12.
Julius Caesar proclaimed his celebrated words, "Veni, Vidi, Vici (I
came, I saw, I conquered)" in Turkey when he defeated the Pontus, a formidable kingdom in the Black Sea region of Turkey.
13.
Marc Antony had a gate constructed for Cleopatra's entrance into the
city of Tarsus where he summoned her to meet him in 41 B.C.
18. The Garden of Eden in the Book of Genesis was said to be watered by a river which separated into four streams as it left the garden; two of which, the Tigris and Euphrates rise from
20. Poetry is the dominant form of literature in Turkey.
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