Curator: Ceren Özpinar

"I am always interested in the memories of my childhood which are carried until today. While the inner adventures carry the tracks of the past to the future, the memories, which were scattered among the alienation and familiarity concepts, call us to the new games in our life, presented like a puzzle. This game is built up by desires, loss, dreams and shadows. We have to venture the power in order to play. It is then; our full history becomes a “discovery atlas” instead of a journal. It is just enough to help our “line” in its struggle of finding itself. The art is inside of life and it has abandoned its sublimity. It is just right next to us. And then we remember the words of André Malraux, who made his protagonist, say: “The man is what he does”." Hakan Onur, “Modern Turk – Turkish Art at the Second Half of the 20th Century” Exhibition Catalog, 2001

Hakan Onur is one of the artists who uses together different elements from different areas like popular culture, illustration, graphic design and photo novella and who can melt them, the image and the word, the mind and feelings, the tension and serenity, while he carries on his discussion with his identity, name and even his presence beginning from his very first works.

Guests of his paintings, images like castles, armchairs, Mickey Mouse fists, logotypes, mathematical relations, letters, conversation balloons, words, I.E. Windows, woods, lavatory bowls, armorial bearings and flags, play a key role in Onur’s interrogation of various concepts like power, identity, marriage, realty and artwork.

The numbers, letters and words create an inner dynamic and a different plastic value in his artworks which were used as an instrument inside of the context and gained independence in the painting entitled “Hakan Bir Seytandir” (“Hakan is a Devil”, 1988, #1 in the exhibition) and took a very active part in his works as well as images. Therefore the writing begins to exist in the artwork without losing its plastic value and indicates a different conceptual face: transmitting the idea by writing right along with the image.

Artist’s “Armchairs” series, which were created in the 90s, juxtapose the discussion of the problems of “objective value of the artwork” with the power issues. The other important elements of this series, the hand and the fists, are placed occasionally inside of the artworks’ so-called “frame”; and armchairs are broadened now and then, block the entrance and even constitute the basis of a pyramid transforming into the couches, and still supporting the represented concepts.

In the following series entitled the “Castles”, it can bee seen that The Gardens of Happiness are floating in a fairy tale alongside their maps, servants, armorial bearings, and flags. It can be also said that these works represent the “forts of the world” with their main and secondary titles, stories and didactic texts accompanied with decorated frames.

Right along with the works recreating the Armchairs in the third dimension, it can be said that the umbrella installations, are the fruits of the artist’s secret relation with the numbers and emulate the architectural structures of old times.

Onur using image and writing together in his works which belong to another series continues to interrogate the definition of the artwork and to make the audience think about this issue, providing them visions from the internet.

The works formed only by words, “Yalan Dünya” (“False World”, 1995), “Bu Sergide Hakan Onur’un Bir Yapiti Bulunmaktadir” (“This Exhibition Includes an Artwork of Hakan Onur”, 1995), “Son-Anne” (“The End-Mother”, 1997), “Karim, Sergiye Gelirken Ne Giyecegi Konusunda Kararsiz Kaldi” (“My Wife Vacillated about her Clothing when she was coming for the Exhibition”, 2002) are successors of the works which have speech balloons and carry the works to another dimension. This is the transmittance of the idea as an artwork. These works have different subtexts have a common denominator, which is the discussion of the artwork’s definition and its value of it as a commodity.

Images and text courtesey of Eczacibasi Virtual Museum

HAKAN ONUR

Hakan Onur was born in Istanbul in 1965. He began to study in Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty in 1982 and graduated in 1986. He held his MA degree in Mimar Sinan University Painting Department in between 1989 and completed his PhD in Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty in 1998. Onur is currently studying in Istanbul, in his own studio.

Personal Exhibitions

2000 “Variations on Marriage #2”, Mobile Phone Line
1999 “Variations on Marriage #1”, Performance, Sisli Marriage Bureau
1997 “Days of Answering Machine”, Telephone Line, Istanbul
1996 “My Sponsors”, Yildiz Technical University Yüksel Sabanci Art Centre, Istanbul
1992 “965+H=1992”, Atatürk Cultural Centre, Istanbul
1990 Töbank Art Gallery, Istanbul
1990 Zebra Art Gallery, Istanbul

Joint Exhibitions

2005 “5 Traces”, Gallery Binyil, Istanbul
2004 “Transformation” International exhibition, Toptasi Külliyesi, Üsküdar, Istanbul
2004 “Shaman’s Diary”, Proje 4l Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum, Istanbul
2003 “Appointment”, C.A.M. Art Gallery, Istanbul
2002 “40 Jahre: Fluxus Und Die Folgen” International exhibition, Kunstsomer Wiesbaden, Karstadt, Wiesbaden, Germany
2002 “Down - Up”, C.A.M. Art Gallery, Istanbul
2001 “Look Again” (Curator: Vasif Kortun), Proje 4l Istanbul Contemporary Art Museum
2001 “Modern Turk”, Topkapi Palace Museum Has Ahirlar, Istanbul
2000 “Face To Face #3”, Yapi Kredi Kazim Taskent Art Gallery, Istanbul
2000 “Transitiveness” (Curator: Ali Akay), Gazi Magosa, Cyprus
2000 “Risky Shadows” (Curator: Ali Akay), Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty Gallery, Istanbul
1999 “Art and Its Trends” (Curator: Ali Akay), Urart Art Gallery, Istanbul
1999 “Writing – Art”, Pi Artworks Contemporary Arts Center, Istanbul
1999 Joint Exhibition (Curator: Vasif Kortun), Galetea Sanat Galerisi, Istanbul
1998 “Face To Face 2” International exhibition, Athens
1998 “Private A Day” (Curator Vasif Kortun), Istanbul Contemporary Art Project, Istanbul
1998 “Turkish Plastic Arts Exhibition – A Gift for the 75th Anniversary”, Dolmabahçe Cultural Center, Ankara and Istanbul A Science and Art Gallery Organization
1997 “Introspection”, Atatürk Cultural Center, Istanbul
1995 “Suddenly the Turks” International exhibition, Parvi Art Gallery, Paris
1995 “Imagination of History”, Efes Antique City, Selçuk
1995 “Double Exhibition: Hakan Onur and Kadir Reisli”, Gallery Baraz, Istanbul
1995 “Art = Fiction – Life”, Urart Art Gallery, Istanbul
1993 “New York – Istanbul” International exhibition, Atatürk Cultural Center, Istanbul, A Gallery Baraz Organization
1992 “3rd International Istanbul Biennial” (Curator: Vasif Kortun), Feshane, Istanbul
1991 “12th Contemporary Artists Istanbul Exhibition”, Painting and Sculpture Museum, Istanbul
1990 “15th Exhibition throughout the Events”, Atatürk Cultural Center, Istanbul, Gallery Baraz Organization
1990 “Spring Exhibition of Old and New Youngs” (Curator: Vasif Kortun), Sadberk Hanim Museum, Istanbul
1989 “Young Painters Generation #1” (Curators: Yahsi Baraz and Vasif Kortun), Atatürk Cultural Center, Istanbul