Element Art Space is the first gallery in Singapore to present a solo exhibition of a Turkish artist. The show, Memory and Blood, by Volkan Diyaroglu will consist of 13 paintings.

Many people have forgotten that Turkey is in fact located in Asia Minor, more precisely in Western Asia, and holds one of the oldest, richest and most diverse history in the world. Its culture today reflects remnants from its prehistoric Anatolia combined with Ottoman and Western culture traditions which results in a “modern” Western state that still maintains traditional religious and historical values. Their influence has spread all the way to Greater Asia and is easily relatable to the audience in South East Asia.

The title of the exhibition, Memory and Blood, references Greco-Roman cultures from his birthplace on the shores of the Black Sea and alludes to the divergence between the artist’s personal memories and how they are revealed through his work. Memory, when it calls up the very history of the artist’s own trajectory, through the introduction of remnants of his past work (his followers can trace the passages of his artistic itinerary in many of the paintings on exhibition here and revisit very significant moments in his art). It is also a testimony because the paintings are timeless, but things imposed on canvas are form the exact time when they were cast onto it and attempt to serve as an anchor to reality and proclaim that in the midst of so much chaos, a door can exist that helps us transcend it. In the end, however, it all turns into blood spurting from the brushes of an artist through whom litres upon litres of paint flow, leaving the cosmic in ruins.

About the artist:

Volkan Diyaroglu (b. 1982, Turkey) received his education from Mimar Sinan University and San Carlos Faculty of Fine Arts, Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. Diyaroglu has had solo exhibitions in Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and received scholarships and artist residencies in Europe. His works can be found in major collections such as the Coca Cola Foundation, The Elgiz Museum of Contemporary Art (Turkey), National Museum of George Enescu (Romania) and more.

Image: © Volkan Diyaroglu
Courtesy of the artist and Element Art Space