Marlborough Gallery to Show "Journey from East to West" by Ahmet Güneştekin

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Günestekin Art Center

11 Jan, 2017, 10:00 GMT

ISTANBUL, January 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Marlborough Gallery presents the exhibition Journey from East to West in New York, by the Turkish Kurdish artist Ahmet Güneştekin whose sculpture Kostantiniyye has been protested, censored and eventually removed from the space where it was installed in Istanbul recently.

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Title of the work: Swan and Leda's Day of Love, 2016, Oil on Canvas, 280 x 380 cm - Gunestekin has a lexicon of favourite themes and legends that have recurred in his work almost since its inception: Icarus, Prometheus, Lilith, Medusa, Leda and the Swan, Shahmaran, angels, Simurgh, and rulers or guardians of ancient lands and civilizations, among many others. (PRNewsFoto/Gunestekin Art Center)
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Title of the work: Fatih Hill 1B, Kostantiniyye Series, 2016, Mix Media, 180 x 180 x 30 cm - In the Kostantiniyye series, which describes the names of the seven hills of Istanbul, the imagery is densely packed and the mirrored orb is at the center, giving the objects the appearance of having been spun rapidly. (PRNewsFoto/Gunestekin Art Center)
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     (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/454621/Day_of_Love.jpg )

     (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/454620/Fatih_Hill.jpg )

In Journey from East to West, a kind of mini-retrospective is in play, showing off Güneştekin's talent in a variety of mediums, from paintings, reliefs, carpets, kilims, and patchworks, to his most recent forays in sculpture. The exhibition, curated by New York based art critic and historian Matthew Drutt, will open on the 11th of January, 2017.

Güneştekin has been working on a breakout series of sculptures in ceramic and metal recently that represent the greatest stylistic transformation his work has undergone in more than a decade. The series carries the general title Dhul Qarnayn which it is referred to as "he of the two horns" in the Qu'ran.  He has rendered the idea of Dhul Qarnayn in a series of grotesquely beautiful ceramic urns containing ornate skulls and horns that radiate from and through the walls of the urns, as if he is a Medusa figure.

The curator identifies the works as a chaotic sea of forms leaping out into space. The objects are circular, and the orb is at the center and rendered in metallic mirror. This allows the reliefs to change depending on where they are installed, since they reflect their surroundings, but also inscribe the viewer into them as they too are reflected when looking at the object head on.

"If his references seem eclectic, it's a deceptive impression, because they are rooted in a common and consistent interest in the way in which the universes different cultures have imagined and the peoples who create them share common, and in some cases opposing, beliefs," clarifies Matthew Drutt. "In turn, these realms contain parables that have implications for contemporary society, be they in conflict or otherwise."

The exhibition by Ahmet Güneştekin, whose works appears simultaneously ancient and modern, will be open to visit until February 4 at Marlborough Gallery.