Nilbar Güreş
Double-headed Snake
November 25–December 30, 2016
Rampa Istanbul
Şair Nadim Caddesi No: 21a
Beşiktaş, Istanbul
www.rampaistanbul.com
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Rampa presents Double-headed Snake, a exhibition of works by Nilbar Güreş in Rampa’s street level project room from November 25 through December 30, 2016.
Prior to her extensive solo exhibition which will take place next year, the show represents a sampling of the artist’s recent inclinations. The exhibition is comprised of sculptures and collage works never before shown in Istanbul, many of which she created for seminal shows at museums, institutions and biennials she participated in recently: including the Sao Paulo Biennial, Kingdom of Hours, (a show she participated in at Gasworks in London), as well as the work that was on display at 21er Haus Vienna, which led to her being awarded the BC21 Art Award last year.
The walls of the project room are painted in a soft hue and the window to the street draped, partially obscuring the contents of the exhibition. It is at once solitary and public, revealed and concealed—much like the artist’s works themselves. The title of the show is suggestive, metaphoric, and too, the name of Güreş’ sculpture which rests on a rock within the space. The work is a knit snake, rainbow patterns denoting its two heads. This work, and the others, hold their own subversive and subtle stories, asking the viewer to come close, read clues, and decipher what is being being told.
The exhibition is like a winter garden, an enclosed oasis telling private stories, with the sculpture, after which the show is titled, acting as a kind of reference point, a narrator.
Nilbar Güreş (Istanbul, 1977) received a BA degree in Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University, İstanbul, and then completed her MA degree in Painting & Graphics from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.
Some of the major exhibitions Güreş participated in are 20th Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island, Australia (2016); Serralves Museum, Porto (2015); Malmö Konstmuseum (2015); Artspace Auckland (2015); SeMa Biennale Mediacity Seoul (2014); EVA International Ireland’s Biennial, Limerick City (2014); The 31. Bienal de Sao Paulo (2014); MAK, Vienna (2013); The Istanbul Museum of Modern Art (2011); 6th Berlin Biennial (2010); Secession Vienna (2010); 11th International İstanbul Biennial (2009). And touring exhibition Tactics of Invisibility at Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2010); Tanas, Berlin (2010–11) and at ARTER, Istanbul (2011). The artist’s solo exhibitions are MQ, Vienna (2011); Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (2011); Rampa, Istanbul (2011), Iniva, London (2010–11); Rivington Place, London (2010) and Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg (2009). She completed a residencies at the Lutetia Building, FAAP’s Artistic Residence Program, São Paulo in 2014; International Studio & Curatorial Program in New York supported by the Austrian Government in 2012. She received the Hilde Goldschmidt Prize in 2013, the Otto Mauer Award of 2014 and Fifth edition of the BC21 (Belvedere Contemporary) Art Award 2015 in Austria.
Nilbar Güreş lives and works in Vienna and Istanbul.
For further information or image requests please contact Nicole O’Rourke:
norourke [at] rampaistanbul.com / T +90 (212) 327 0800
