Artist Deniz Pelister’s “Human Race” solo exhibition is set to be displayed at Vision Art Platform in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district.
Pelister employs symbolism to provide insights into various narratives and cultural structures encountered during her travels to Africa. Her use of vibrant colors and straightforward composition in portrait and group portrait paintings allows for a detailed examination of the subjects within a closed composition, enabling the viewer to feel the emotions of each individual. By combining African symbols and motifs, Pelister takes the audience on a visual exploration journey through a rich cultural world using the language of art.
The theme of a journey can be cleverly used as a metaphor to contemplate the individual and collective paths we, as humanity, traverse. In Pelister's works, elements of movement, progress, and fluidity often appear, offering visual representations of personal, emotional, and physical journeys. In other words, we witness journeys through metaphors, much like a bird flying in Joan Miro's abstract landscape or Claude Monet's water lilies.
Inspired by the transformative journeys of Deniz Pelister, her artworks reflect the essence of human experience. Through symbolism, narratives, and empathy established with authenticity, her works transport viewers to the deepest surfaces of the human journey. Each piece invites us to embark on journeys of self-discovery, navigating the complex paths of life and recognizing the beauty and adaptability within every individual.
As an artist who attaches special prominence to portraits in her artistic production, she reinterprets this genre in a unique way. Growing up in Hamburg, her relation with painting developed instinctively. At the age of 20, she returned to Türkiye from Germany and dedicated herself to painting. Using the canvas as a platform to narrate stories of the people she encounters, the artist sometimes suggests a possibility in her portraits, whether in individual or group compositions. Avşar combines flat color fields separated by contours with naive linearity to depict people, animals, and their "invisible faces."
However, this is by no means a simple comparison. In Pelister's portraits, faces are always missing or completely erased. This deliberate choice may signify resistance to the culture of proving or disproving almost everything through social media, a culture that does not appreciate imagination, and one that prefers certainty (even considering it a danger) only when opportunities arise, with clearly defined boundaries for today's society. Perhaps the focus of these portraits' emptiness at the core is the result of the accumulation of all expressions, emotional states, and reactions to past and future experiences. Regardless of the reason, the figures in these paintings embody forms of emptiness and uncertainty, where viewers can assign meaning by interpreting visual clues such as writings, clothing, colors, or sometimes objects in the background.
With her portraits, Pelister suggests a contemplation where viewers can shape their own memories, deductions, or prejudices, allowing them to engage with their own value judgments, whether good or bad, right or wrong. These portraits, based on the stories of people from different locations, complete all these narratives left open in canvases overflowing with fluid boundaries, creating a space for viewers to reconsider themselves. They also serve as milestones in the artist's journey of self-understanding within the exhibition narrative.
The exhibition will be displayed at Vision Art Platform in the Akaretler neighborhood until Nov. 30.
