Kemal Seyhan: Untitled 2020 Oil on canvas 85 x 70 cm. Photos courtesy of the artist and Pi Artworks London
Kemal Seyhan sums up his art in four simple words: horizontal, vertical, colour, intensification. And so it has been for the past two decades, as he applies his canvases with layer upon layer of oil paint, creating in thousands of spatula strokes an extraordinary illusion of depth and harmony.
Living and working in Vienna and Istanbul, the Kayseri-born artist is holding his debut solo show in the UK. Recent solo exhibitions have included Untitled – Poetics of Inner Space at Pi Artworks, Istanbul (2018); Syntax (solo) Osthaus Museum Hagen, Germany (2017); and Ondas Negras (Black Waves), at the GPLSpaceVI, Vienna (2015).
All the works are untitled. Measurements range from 60 x 50cm to 230 x 190cm.
Untitled, 2015, oil on canvas, 230x190 cm
During the painting process Seyhan confines himself to a set of rules: He starts with black paint and a horizontally positioned canvas. He then meticulously applies the paint in straight vertical or horizontal bars. A painterly stratum is created on each canvas by kilograms of paint applied via thousands of spatula touches.
Kemal Seyhan: Untitled 2020 Oil on canvas 85 x 70 cm. Photos courtesy of the artist and Pi Artworks London
Issue 66, December 2023
Turkey’s Centenary Issue
