Turkish artist Fevzi Karakoç’s newest exhibition “Imgenin Ötesi” (“Beyond the Image”) has opened at the Istanbul Equestrian Club. Curated by Marcus Graf, the exhibition will remain open for Istanbulite art lovers until Jan. 17.
The Istanbul Equestrian Club, bringing art and sports together, is simultaneously hosting the “Beyond the Image” exhibition and holding the Baran Cup showjumping race. Ten percent of the income from the sale of the paintings in the exhibition will be transferred to the “Equine Therapy" social responsibility project.
Bringing together the paintings produced by Karakoç in the last few years, “Beyond the Image” reveals the current state of the artist's work. In addition to revealing how the artist brings logic and emotion together, the exhibition also reveals how he combines serial repetition with gestural expression to reveal alternative painting forms and concepts. In his works, it is seen that Karakoç ignores the old rigid boundaries of modern art through the connection between rationalism and empiricism in order to go beyond the traditional notions of figurative and abstract art.
In harmony with the place of the exhibition, “Beyond the Image” presents visitors with some paintings with various depictions of horses. Horses, which are a powerful symbol, are the figural elements of the composition in Karakoç’s paintings. While they are making important references to Karakoç's childhood, they also become a starting point for the observation and perception process, attracting the attention of the viewers.
Focusing on the horses, the eye gets lost in the myriad of layers and textures of Karakoç’s works to discover the power and beauty of color. In the works, the figures lose their old meanings because they are cut off from their usual time and place. Horse figures do not function as symbols as they relate to nothing but the painting itself.
In his other works, the artist consults some other techniques he used in the horse paintings to create a stronger psycho-visual effect. The resulting works have a strong momentum that fully supports the dynamism of the whole composition and refers to the aesthetic power of painting.
