Index 2023 · Yiğit Özen

Index of paintings by Yiğit Özen, 2023

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.

penguin is not a friend, only a sinner, 2023

Acrylic on canvas, 120 × 120 cm (47 ¼ × 47 ¼ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Sweeping curved brushstrokes fill the left two thirds of the square, building a tall rounded mass of pale yellow, off-white, olive green and teal, with pale pink patches at the upper left and on the left side below centre. Near the top, short horizontal strokes form two dark elongated marks side by side above a fan of vertical white strokes. Below, yellow arcs curve down both sides around a teal, grey and white core. Three yellow strokes reach toward the bottom edge, one at the lower left and two crossing near the centre. Dark olive brown fills the upper left corner; the right third is thin pale green grey.

Up at the narrowest part of the body two dark slits have gathered; the face is there, like a small knot fastened to the top of a mass far greater than itself. The great arcs descending below read as an embrace, and also as two taut wings guarding the chest; this double reading sets up the painting's central tension.

penguin is not a friend, only a sinner · Reading, in seven lenses

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