About
Yiğit Özen was born in 1994 in Istanbul and trained as an architect. The paintings date from 2018 onward and were made across Istanbul, Milan and Luxembourg. Alongside the paintings, Özen works as an XR and spatial web designer, and is the founder of decentralize design in Milan and Virtually Ever After in Luxembourg. That practice has been shown at Kunsthalle Zürich, the Royal Institution in London, Holy Art Gallery London and Art Basel Miami.
On the work
The figures in these paintings are assembled rather than drawn whole. A body accumulates out of clusters of rounded cells and bubbles that lean against one another and never close into a single form, and the lower half dissolves before it reaches the ground, so a figure can stand without being able to walk.
The paintings are made in a way that allows no correction. What is put down stays down, so the surface keeps the first decision along with its hesitations. Large areas are left untouched, and the bare ground carries as much weight as the painted part, which leaves the work looking stopped rather than finished.
Familiar compositional formats are kept while the agreement that made them legible is withdrawn: an object is held out, a sign is displayed, and what either stands for is never supplied. Titles act as a second body in the scene, bending the image instead of describing it. Power appears as a distribution of weight, one figure left underneath the stack. At the edges a small onlooker sits with its eyes closed and its mouth sewn shut, so the witness is cancelled before anything can be reported. Scale works as a verdict, one face given as a person and the rest reduced to signs, sometimes a face replaced by a number.
Particulars
Born 1994, Istanbul. Lives and works in Istanbul, Milan and Luxembourg. Painting, spatial and XR design. Shown at Kunsthalle Zürich, the Royal Institution London, Holy Art Gallery London and Art Basel Miami.
Catalogue: paintings 2019 to 2026, PDF
Enquire
For availability, prices and shipping, or to ask about a particular work, get in touch at x@yigitozen.xyz or on Instagram @yjgjf.
