Works 2026 · Yiğit Özen

Paintings by Yiğit Özen, 2026

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.

Virgil on Virtual Cage (final_final-finalV9), 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 80 × 100 cm (31 ½ × 39 ⅜ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

A seated figure fills the centre in orange and yellow drapery, one hand raised to the cheek, beneath a long white wig falling past the shoulders. Thin white lines draw an open box around it, its flat grey ceiling spanning the top of the canvas and its uprights running down to the lower edge. Behind, the ground is black and deep red, with a pink rectangular panel at upper left holding a pale outlined chair. The lower two thirds are a dense bed of coral, pink and red strokes. At left a small pale figure with curly hair sits in lavender and cream; at right a larger blonde figure in a pink and grey robe turns inward, a wide pink wing behind its shoulder. Below the centre a smaller figure with grey hair lies back with its legs raised. A dark signature mark sits in the lower right corner.

A transparent box, drawn from above in thin white lines, sits on top of everything beneath it. The lines are hard and continuous; the inside of the box, by contrast, is soft, scattered, organic. At the centre a large body is sunk into a yellow between saffron and scorched melon, and the most saturated zone of the canvas is here.

Virgil on Virtual Cage (final_final-finalV9) · Reading, in seven lenses

gary grills cooper, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 55 × 75 cm (21 ⅝ × 29 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Centred and frontal, one figure fills the height, its torso and arms built from overlapping rounded balls in purple, olive green and grey white. Tufted brown hair frames a broad tan face with heavy brows; a brown cigar angles down from the mouth. A pale lavender collar opens at the neck. Tan forearms cross at the waist, the hand at right holding a thin dark rod. White shorts and pale tan legs continue to the bottom edge. The ground is orange above and paler yellow below, with turquoise streaks across mid height. A black oval pan heaped with red, orange and olive marks fills the lower left corner.

The cigar is the one line segment that does not curve on a surface where every form curves; it descends forty five degrees to the left from the level of the mouth, cuts the left wing of the light-value collar and remains the only unit that overturns the frontally established order, because it has no counterpart in the right half.

gary grills cooper · Reading, in seven lenses

walls of perception, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 50 × 70 cm (19 ⅝ × 27 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

A seated form fills the centre. Above it sits a wide-brimmed cream hat with a purple band. Beneath the brim, a dark grey rounded mass carries pink and red vertical marks, and a blue triangular shape hangs below. From this point a broad stream of lumpy yellow grains pours down into a pale round bowl. A charcoal jacket with two curved lapels frames the body against a dark rounded chair back. The upper background is deep teal green; a white band runs along the bottom. A red octagonal cloth covers the lower table, a lavender flower stands at right, and a grey beaded utensil rests at lower right.

A butter-yellow column spilling from a mouth forms the spine of the painting; it begins beneath the chin, widens as it descends and reaches its broadest point in the bowl on the table.

walls of perception · Reading, in seven lenses

articulo attack on mandarin, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 80 × 80 cm (31 ½ × 31 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Deep black fills most of the surface. Numerous elongated bird-like forms painted in blue and white, each with a long beak and streaked wings, scatter across the upper two thirds. Near the centre a thin blue-white humanoid figure grips a vertical pole. Along a horizontal grey boat in the lower third stand a row of small rounded figures built from stacked circles, each marked with an X for eyes. The word STUGOTZ appears in blue letters on the boat's side. At left rises a pale grey triangular peak. Two white anchors and a chain sit at lower left, and thin diagonal lines extend into dark blue water along the bottom.

Winged blue forms are swept from upper left to lower right in a flock; this is the painting's main diagonal, and every unit within it faces the same way, toward the boat below.

articulo attack on mandarin · Reading, in seven lenses

s(t)lop, 2026

Acrylic on canvas, 55 × 75 cm (21 ⅝ × 29 ½ in). Painting by Yiğit Özen (decentralize*).

Across the left half of a tall surface stands a large bird-like form built from overlapping rounded units in lavender, pale turquoise, yellow and white, with a rounded head at upper left, a long tapering beak extending to the right, a wing of curved strokes below it, and two narrow legs reaching the bottom edge. A row of red zigzag marks runs horizontally at centre. Upper right holds a white rectangle with purple vertical bars; below it a yellow outlined rectangle contains a white head with two eye shapes. Vertical strokes of ochre, blue, pink and turquoise fill the background.

Coral-red notches ranged inside an open mouth are the only hard place on the surface; everything around them is opened out with milk, and on a palette the black never visits, lilac, mint, mustard and baby blue rub against one another at the same pitch.

s(t)lop · Reading, in seven lenses

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