Bant Mag. presents: "Seasons - Act IV"

“Seasons” exhibition series, sponsored by Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, organized and presented by Bant Mag., in collaboration with ArtHere has opened three exhibitions in April, July and October presenting works by Hare Sürel, Imad Habbab, Sedat Girgin, Toufic Hamidi, Ali Omar and Mert Tugen. The fourth exhibition Seasons – Act IV, bringing together different approaches to portraits and figures by Maram Maatouq and Gülin Kılıçay will be opening on 17 December, Saturday at Bant Mag. Mekân.

We know Istanbul based artist Gülin Kılıçay through her music and performance works with bands Büyük Ev Ablukada and more recently Heranherşeyolabilir. Gülin Kılıçay who has been concentrating on music and drawing since quitting her career in the theatre field will be showing her portrait works for the first time through Mevsimler – Fasıl IV. The selection of her portraits embraces the sort of existence that denies stereotypes and usual expectations.

Moving from Aleppo to Turkey about three years ago and settling in Sakarya, Syrian artist Maram Maatouq’s works will also be meeting the Istanbul audience for the first time through Mevsimler – Fasıl IV. Working with mixed materials, Maram Maatouq, who is also a violin teacher, likes to show women figures on her paintings and through a layered and in depth technique she prefers to liberate the viewer to be dragged along by various feelings her figures may stimulate.

“Seasons” exhibition series is sponsored by Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, organized and presented by Bant Mag., in collaboration with ArtHere, which was opened by Syrian artists last year in Kadıköy in order to create a free space for both Syrian and Turkish artists. Each of the four exhibitions, which will be shown throughout the year, is bringing together a Syrian and a Turkish artist with similar motivations, different stories and partnering expressions. “Seasons” exhibition series, which we create in solidarity with artists who have fled their country and moved to Turkey due to the ongoing war, hopes to create an independent space for artistic production in Turkey.

Mevsimler– Fasıl IV (Seasons – Act IV) opening at Bant Mag. Mekân on 17 December, Saturday at 5 pm.