The Rhythm of the Figure

Chi Art Gallery is bringing together Süleyman Saim Tekcan, one of the pioneers of Turkish painting and sculpture, and Emir Tekkalmaz, one of the prominent artists of the recent period, in an exhibition titled "The Rhythm of the Figure," which will take place between February 18 and March 18. Curated by Deha Çun, the exhibition focuses on the multilayered relationship that figurative art establishes through rhythm, movement, and continuity. The Rhythm of the Figure brings together two different generations, two distinct worlds of figures, and two unique understandings of movement in a common rhythm at Chi Art Gallery. The exhibition reveals that the figure is not merely a formal representation but also a narrative tool constructed with time, discipline, and dynamism. The visual dialogue established between the controlled power of the horse and the fluidity of the dancing body forms the exhibition's main conceptual axis. Süleyman Saim Tekcan's disciplined lines and powerful horse figures, alongside Emir Tekkalmaz's figures focused on bodily movement and fluidity, present the different rhythms of figurative art to the audience. The Rhythm of the Figure creates a space where the figure transcends being a static image and transforms into movement itself, while also paving the way for an intergenerational aesthetic and intellectual encounter. The exhibition proposes a re-interpretation of the historical continuity of figurative expression with a contemporary perspective.

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Kolektif Hafızanın Kırıkları

Over time, images from different periods, aesthetic references, and cultural traces that have found a place in our collective memory are brought back to life through hand drawings in architectural and cinematographic scenes, using an illustration-based approach. This approach creates a meeting point between different art movements. Cubism's structural thinking, Surrealism's free images opening up to the subconscious, and Pop Art's relationship with cultural icons coexist, creating a visual and collective richness. The artist's background in architecture distinctly shapes this visual language. For Ömer Atakan, composition is not merely an aesthetic arrangement; it is a structure built in layers, almost an architecture. The surface transforms into a space where images shift, intersect, and reconnect. Atakan's strong interest in cinema emerges as another element defining this architecture. Light, framing, and dramatic intensity often aim to present the works within a cinematic atmosphere. On these surfaces, the viewer encounters scenes that sometimes evoke the cinematic aesthetic of the 1970s, sometimes the silhouettes of popular culture icons, and sometimes images resembling a poster for a film that was never shot. These images are not entirely familiar; yet, they are not entirely foreign either. They exist precisely in this interval, in the uncertain realm of collective memory. In this sense, "Fragments of Collective Memory" is not just an exhibition; it opens up a space for reflection that questions how images circulate, how they are remembered, and how they are reconstructed over time. Ömer Atakan's works invite the viewer not only to look at the images but also to trace the imprints of their own visual memory.

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Elifko

Chi Art Gallery is pleased to announce Elifko’s third solo exhibition, "The Toy Story". Curated by T. Melis Golar, the exhibition, which will open on April 10, 2026, in Galata, Beyoğlu, will feature Elifko's most recent works. In the exhibition, where the artist's signature plates and female portraits come together, the story of a toy's inclusion in a child's life and adult portraits will be explored. In this exhibition, the artist places nostalgia, innocence, and memory on her plate. Canvases that weave between adulthood and childhood, imagination and reality, show that children's games can carry a possibility for the future. While a memory can disappear as quickly as a meal is consumed, a resistance to this transience emerges in the artist's canvases; a desire to preserve, not forget, and maintain value. This effort aims to vacuum-seal and preserve the memory. The clash between past and future and the destructiveness of time become visible through the metaphors of fire and candles. The artist's narrative, built through Legos, emphasizes the endless possibilities offered by play and how choices among these possibilities shape life. This structure, based on building and deconstructing, keeps a thinking practice alive. At the same time, it points to the butterfly effect created by possibilities between times and lives.

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Gem

“Substance is one; some call it God, others Nature.”— Spinoza Substance refers to the essence that remains unchanged behind appearances, the self-existent nature of being. According to Spinoza, the universe consists of a single substance called God or Nature; everything is a mode of this substance—a stone, a bird, a thought, or a splash of color. The Cevher exhibition was conceived as a space where art makes these modes visible: each artwork is a different manifestation of the same essence. Yunus Özaksu’s practice draws from the cycle of nature, the transformation of matter, and the collective memory of symbols. On paper surfaces colored with walnut shells and henna stone, the artist translates the miniature tradition into a contemporary language. The transition from the plain state of paper to a textured surface is linked to the “rawness–transformation–maturity” process in Sufi philosophy; each surface transforms into an inner journey of humanity with nature’s incidental traces. The crane figures emerging on these textures evolve from individual beings into a collective symbol. Like in ancient Turkic mythology and Buddhist iconography, the crane builds a bridge between loyalty, freedom, and spiritual purification. Together with the lotus, it becomes a harbinger of purification and rebirth rising from muddy roots. Throughout the exhibition, the works depict sections from the general lives and movements of cranes, and their ‘transformation’ processes are also narrated in a storytelling manner. The lotus, which became part of Central Asian art with the adoption of Mahayana Buddhism by the Uyghurs, symbolizes the soul’s liberation from worldly attachments as a pure flower opening in dirty water. In Özaksu’s works, the lotus also tells the viewer a symbolic indicator of the transformation process that crane birds are undergoing. Like the lotus flower, cranes have become harbingers of purification and rebirth rising from muddy roots and the protagonists of a collective transformation story. Özaksu’s works reveal the potential of a singular spark to transform into a social movement. Each bird represents both an individual intuition and a collective consciousness. Stains taken from nature, combined with the traces of water and time, accompany humanity's inner journey, the process of purification and transformation. Cevher invites the viewer to an intellectual journey beyond a visual experience. Every bird, every pattern, every surface carries the potential for a singular spark to transform into the universal whole. Just like Spinoza’s modes, they are all different manifestations of the same substance.

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Fluid Stories

"Fluid Stories," presented as a parallel exhibition to the 18th Istanbul Biennial “The Tripod Cat,” brings together the works of Alla Güner and Ege Subaşı. The exhibition explores the similarity between our world and our bodies through the lens of water, inviting viewers to contemplate both the delicate balance of ecosystems and the layered structure of the self. Every surface carries time and its invisible traces. The Earth exists not only as the soil we walk on but also through the memory of water, which maintains its fluidity. Similarly, the human body is both a carrier and a recorder. Fluid Stories makes this connection visible through the practices of two distinct artists. Alla Güner, in her "water maps" created from the seas and water bodies surrounding Turkey and Japan, points to the delicate balance of ecosystems. Her works translate the geopolitical, ecological, and climatic transformations accumulated in water's memory into a layered, fluid, and permeable visual language. The traces carried by water reveal not only the fragility of geographies but also that of global life. Ege Subaşı, on the other hand, carries this sensitivity inward, to the body and soul. Her artistic practice revolves around self-awareness, the self, and existential inquiries. In her approach, defined by the metaphor of the "Veil of Mist," moments when external influences blur perception and the essence becomes invisible are revealed. In her portraits, faces shift, figures become indistinct, and memories remain incomplete. Her figurative language, oscillating between clarity and blurriness, makes visible the fragmented nature of the subject and the fluctuating balances of the inner world. "Fluid Stories" brings together, on the same plane, the traces Alla Güner reads in the outer world, on the surface of water, and the balances Ege Subaşı discovers in the inner world, in the body and soul. This encounter reminds us that the earth and the self, nature and humanity, the external and the internal, are not separate from each other. Every surface carries time and its invisible traces. The Earth exists not only as the soil we walk on but also through the memory of water, which maintains its fluidity. Similarly, the human body is both a carrier and a recorder. Fluid Stories makes this connection visible through the practices of two distinct artists. Alla Güner, in her "water maps" created from seas and water bodies, points to the delicate balance of ecosystems. Her works translate the geopolitical, ecological, and climatic transformations accumulated in water's memory into a fluid and permeable visual language. The traces carried by water reveal not only the fragility of geographies but also that of global life. Ege Subaşı, on the other hand, carries this sensitivity inward, to the body and soul. Her artistic practice revolves around self-awareness, the self, and existential inquiries. In her approach, defined by the metaphor of the "Veil of Mist," moments when external influences blur perception and the essence becomes invisible are revealed. In her portraits, faces shift, figures become indistinct, and memories remain incomplete. Her figurative language, oscillating between clarity and blurriness, makes visible the fragmented nature of the subject and the fluctuating balances of the inner world. "Fluid Stories" brings together, on the same plane, the water maps created by Alla Güner based on the traces she reads in the outer world, on the surface of water, and the balances Ege Subaşı discovers in the inner world, in the body and soul. This encounter reminds us that the earth and the self, nature and humanity, the external and the internal, are not separate from each other.

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Summer Selection

Chi Art Gallery meets its audience with Summer Selection One, the first step of its new exhibition series, which will be held annually and focuses on independent artists. The selection of works by Jenny Adem, Daniela Budisteanu, Melike Kuş, Selin Tahtakılıç, Yunus Özaksu, and Halil Vurucuoğlu creates an uncertain but impressive space, oscillating between the inner world and outer reality. The artworks present the dreamlike and the waking state to the audience with a poetic language. Summer Selection One does not treat the season as a period of time, but rather as a metaphor for change, breakage, and re-establishment.

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The House's Memory

Rabia Kalyoncuoğlu's solo exhibition titled "The Memory of Home" centers on the multi-layered relationship between space and memory. Through her site-specific installation, she invites the viewer on a utopian journey while also leading them back to their own past and memories. The artist positions the home not merely as a shelter, but as a bearer of identity, belonging, and cultural continuity, questioning the changes between the past and present life. The exhibition addresses living spaces transformed by the impact of societal changes and the effects of this transformation on individual memory through a sensory experience. In the exhibition, the artist showcases the concept of home and its evolution over time. "The Memory of Home" examines how our life cycles have changed in modern times with shrinking spaces, individualization, and accelerated pace, whereas in the past, homes embraced much larger families, offered more spacious areas, and provided a more careful, serene, and slower life experience. Home, in its changing form from past to present, is a structure that undergoes both physical and emotional transformation. The transition from extended family structures to individualized lifestyles; the replacement of strong ties with nature by urbanization; the shrinking of spaces along with the narrowing of the inner world… Kalyoncuoğlu makes these breaking points visible. "The Memory of Home" creates a familiar yet no longer belonging home atmosphere by tracing forgotten spaces and habits over time. Handicraft, which holds an important place in the artist's practice, appears here not merely as a technique but as a conceptual tool. Kalyoncuoğlu, who blends personal narratives with traditional production methods, constructs a visual language that merges aesthetics with memory. Objects taken from daily life, which have lost their function or been forgotten, turn into witnesses of the past in this exhibition. Each installation carries the memory of a time, an emotion, or a relationship. Within this utopian home she creates, the artist chooses neither to return to the past nor to completely forget it and adapt to the present. She conveys the congestion brought by modern life and the alienation from nature through the "fake" vegetation she constructs within the home in this universe she creates. The exhibition treats memory not merely as an archive belonging to the past, but as a dynamic that gives meaning to the present and shapes the future. This sensory universe created by Kalyoncuoğlu tells the visitor that remembering is not just an act, but also a healing process. "The Memory of Home" not only offers a visual experience but also confronts the viewer with their own memory, with the pieces they left in the past, and with the traces they still carry today. Rabia Kalyoncuoğlu's solo exhibition titled 'The Memory of Home' can be visited at Chi Art Gallery from May 22 to June 28, 2025.

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Mirror Mirror

Ayna Ayna (Mirror Mirror) offers a unique artistic experience that illuminates the world of multi-layered reflections and questions the concepts of identity and perception. Bringing together the works of nine artists, this exhibition reinterprets concepts of reality, self, and the other through the metaphor of mirrors in contemporary society. Adorned with rainbow tones within a minimalist design aesthetic, Ayna Ayna takes its name from the magical mirrors in fairy tales and invites the viewer to confront their own reflections. Each artist re-examines the concept of the mirror from their unique perspective, revealing fragmented, distorted, or multiplied versions of reality. Artists drawing from different disciplines of visual arts explore topics such as identity, body politics, digital selves, gender roles, and collective memory. Mirrors also emerge as a tool that blurs the boundaries between past and future, matter and spirit, real and virtual. The works of Zeynep Abacı, Eyhan Çelik, Elifko, Tuba Geçgel, Güler Güçlü, Alla Güner, Gökçe İrten, Yonca Karakaş, and Damla Yalçın encourage us to look not only at our own inner confrontations but also at societal mirrors.

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Game

“Play” is an exhibition focusing on the works of three artists who came together, inspired by the concept of Homo Ludens — the "playing human." Featuring works by Ekinakis, Saim Erken, and Loya, the exhibition showcases artists from different generations exploring the concept of play through their unique visual and conceptual languages. Through this intergenerational dialogue, the exhibition aims to question the role of play in creativity, identity, and artistic expression — not merely as a childhood activity, but as a fundamental part of human nature and cultural production.

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