Turkish artist exhibits paintings with embedded calligraphy

Turkish artist Filiz Hatipoğlu, who has held seven solo exhibitions and participated in 50 international group exhibitions, will display her latest work from Dec. 2 to Dec. 17 at Gallery Eksen in Istanbul



Filiz Hatipoğlu's exhibition "Şimdiki Zamanların Güncesi" (The Diary of Present Days) depicts the present embracing both the past and the future. Hatipoğlu said that, aside from temporal paradoxes, her works feature the traces of past moments that produce indispensable elements of popular culture and art. The paradoxical structure of time allows her to use it in art, and her works also remind visitors that if people can discover the intrinsic nature of time and history, it will help them understand events, objects and individuals. Exploring objectivity in art unconsciously allows us to comprehend, design and use it from different perspectives as well.The contradiction that emerges from this paradoxical structure and the objectivity embedded in past moments are displayed together in Hatipoğlu's exhibition. As Turkish author Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar said, "The present day is reminiscent of a knife's edge, which carries the past while transforming it little by little." Hatipoğlu describes the concept of paradox in a way that the past continues its existence as its traces impact the present and can be found in history. Her work also highlights that disappearance continuously takes place due to the progress of time.The past moments of each period add joy to the present day that we are living in and become a component of modernization as well. To understand a society's contemporary characteristics, the present time should be judged accordingly. Hatipoğlu follows the visual image of objectivity with a reflection of the past on her canvas, and she also illustrates how the past is inevitable and no one can escape from it. Hatipoğlu interprets these paradoxical dimensions through calligraphy, and her interest in calligraphy and inspiration derived from the Arabic letters in Ottoman Turkish led her to incorporate calligraphic elements into her art. She successfully harmonizes letters from the Latin, Ottoman and Runic alphabets, and these letters are the diary of the past, present and the future. Her works show respect to the past, while referring to the future with the power of the present, as she says reality lies in depicting past moments.Hatipoğlu graduated from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (MGSÜ), and she obtained a master's degree at Yeditepe University, focusing on plastic arts. She also received a doctorate in the same field. Her art has been on display at local and international museums, and she has taken part in international symposiums and workshops as well as received the Sakıp Sabancı Success Award and an honor from the Küçükçekmece District Municipality. isTANBUL / DAILY SABAH