Zilberman Gallery, founded in Istanbul in 2008, stages 10-12 exhibitions every year in its main gallery spaces in Istanbul and Berlin. The gallery occupies two separate floors of Mısır Apartment, one of the most famous examples of art nouveau in Istanbul. It has a strong presence at international art fairs, forging close relationships with collectors, curators and art professionals, and creating opportunities for gallery artists.
With the firm belief that a commercial gallery should also assume its social responsibility of education and audience development, Zilberman Gallery organizes artist talks, lectures, performances, book launches, as well as round table discussions. Concluding each year's exhibition season, Zilberman Gallery curates "Young Fresh Different," a group show with a selection of works chosen by an independent jury from applications made to a nationwide open call.
Recently, it opened the 10th exhibition of the "Young Fresh Different" selection, also known as YFD, which started to reach out to young artists in 2009. The new selection titled "Young Fresh Different 10: One Must Continue" is curated by artist Burçak Bingöl. With works of 12 artists who took part in the previous selections, Eda Aslan, Özgür Atlagan, Alpin Arda Bağcık, Zeynep Beler, Sevinç Çalhanoğlu, Nazlı Erdemirel, Gizem Karakaş, Zeynep Kayan, Gülşah Mursaloğlu, Ali Şentürk, Ezgi Tok and Hasan Özgür Top, YFD 10, will be on display in the main gallery space of Zilberman Gallery Istanbul in Mısır Apartment from July 13 to Aug. 17.
'One Must Continue' in art
As part of Zilberman Gallery's programming that lies beyond its functions as a commercial gallery, the selection of YFD is evaluated by a different committee each year to provide young artists exposure. Announced through a national open call, the exhibition provides space for young artists and starts the dialogue between them and the gallery.
This particular exhibition, with 12 artists from the previous editions of YFD, looks into the state of remaining an artist after being an emerging artist. It works as an intermission for self-evaluation by being a retrospective on a 10-year process. Instead of searching for an overarching theme, it focuses on the original language these artists developed with devotion over the years and brings the works that organically formed through their artistic production together.
Curated by Burçak Bingöl, who worked for YFD directly during her post as an artistic director of the gallery between 2010 and 2016, this exhibition mostly presents newly produced works by these previously selected 12 artists. It rethinks the sustainability of production itself. In addition to the works in the exhibition, the curator invites them to write their unique experiences related to being an artist. These free-form texts express and portray the source of artistic concerns and psychological landscape in which the artworks emerge.
The title "One Must Continue," specific to the 10th year, takes its inspiration from a Samuel Beckett quote included in Zeynep Kayan's text for the exhibition. It is a wishful subtitle both for these artists to sustain their ambition to create as well as a call for institutions to keep their support and encouragement through projects like YFD.
There will be an accompanying catalog, including detailed documentation of the exhibition as well as notes and images on the production processes alongside texts by the curator and the artists.
