Impressive and timeless: Ekrem Yalcindag's monumental ornamental worlds are developed between traditional geometric abstraction and contemporary conceptual art. - During his studies at the Städelschule in Germany, Ekrem Yalcindag discovered one of the smallest artist’s brushes in the world, the da Vinci 1570 in 0 gauge, for his work. With this tool, he found his very own approach to impasto painting, which his teacher Hermann Nitsch had introduced him to.
Ekrem Yalcindag Natures wood- and silkscreen print with oil on canvas 100x80cm 2023
Ekrem Yalcindag (*1964 in Göblasi/TR) studied in Izmir and Frankfurt, master student of Hermann Nitsch at the Städelschule. His works are represented internationally in renowned collections of contemporary art, such as Istanbul Modern, Sammlung Goetz, Arthena Foundation, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Museum Haus Konstruktiv Zurich or the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
exhibitions / group exhibitions
2023
“Seeing the World Anew”, Kunstforum Wien, AT “Natures”, Museum of Modern Art, Dubrovnik, HR
2022
Rotonda, 75. Locarno Film Festival, CH
2021
“Ornament und Unendlichkeit”, Kreuzherrensaal Memmingen, DE “The Frankfurt Art experience”, Kai Middendorff Galerie, DE Berlin Art Week, DE
Vienna Contemporary, AT Art Cologne, Köln, DE “From Color to Color”, Galerie Bechter Kastowsky, Wien, DE
2016
“About Color, Nature, Ornaments, and Other Things”, Kunst- und Kulturstiftung Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, DE Doppelganger”, Torrance Art Museum, USA
2014
“Die Aktualität des Ornaments”, Mönchehaus Museum, Goslar, DE
2013
“Contrasts” (permanent), Museum Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, TR “Ekrem Yalcindag”, Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, CH
2012
“Impressions from the Streets”, Kunsthalle Bremerhaven, DE
2011
“Istanbul Appraisal”, Pori Museum, FI
Ekrem Yalcindag owes the sparking inspiration for the abstracted flower shapes typical of his paintings to the Frankfurt Palm Garden, which provided him with the motifs for his drawing studies.
“there is a real artist at work between orient and occident, who works in berlin, frankfurt, istanbul and vienna. he has the strength and greatness to master and connect different cultures. his work is nowhere a foreign body, it is perhaps an expression of a new world consciousness.” – Hermann Nitsch about Ekrem Yalcindag
Since then, his work has been characterised by large- and medium-format canvases with monochrome to multicolour surfaces inserted into dynamic line structures. His all-over paintings reflect not only the influences of his second teacher at the Städel, Thomas Bayrle, but also of Minimal Art artists such as Sol Lewitt, which at the same time merge with an entirely timeless organic formal language. In Ekrem Yalcindag’s most recent group of works, the inclusion of monumental screen and wood printing techniques resulted in a fascinating further development into a new spatial dimension of his work.
