Renowned artist Seçkin Pirim’s highly anticipated exhibition “Remains” has made a grand debut at the prestigious Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum.
The museum, celebrated as Türkiye’s first and most extensive repository of plastic arts, is hosting this extraordinary event starting on Oct. 31. Curated by the esteemed art consultant Osman Erden, the exhibition captivates visitors starting from the museum’s ground floor corridor, located along the historic Meclis-i Mebusan Street. One of the standout pieces, titled “Sarcophagus,” takes center stage on the third-floor atrium balcony. Here, art enthusiasts can marvel at this exceptional sculpture while discovering the intriguing history of the Cannon Foundry School revealed through the sarcophagi unearthed during excavations conducted by the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.
Pirim attended Istanbul Anadolu High School for Fine Arts and, after graduating in painting in 1995, studied at the Sculpture Department of Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts. He completed his master’s degree in the same department in 2001. Pirim grew up in a milieu of poets, architects, painters and sculptors and was taught in the studios of various artists from the age of 8. As an artist, he based his technique on what he learned from these masters and on his passion for traveling around the world.
During his travels at various times to ancient cities in Anatolia and neighboring regions, Pirim studies the styles of ancient sculptors and the forms that shaped their careers, focusing particularly on Aphrodisias, where the first school of sculpture was situated and its environs. His latest exhibition, “Remains,” consists of a series of nine new works that reflect sculptural forms from antiquity to the present day. In these works, he examines the systematic relations between architecture, design, sculpture and museums. He also investigates connections between types of sculpture production and our ways of perceiving them from past to present, inviting the viewer to think about the role of contemporary public sculpture.
The “Remains” exhibition will be at the Istanbul Painting and Sculpture Museum until Feb. 29.
