May 10–July 26, 2014
Galeri Zilberman
Istiklal Cad. Mısır Apt.
No:163 K.3 D.10
34433 Beyoğlu/Istanbul
Turkey
Kay Rosen, in conversation with Vassilios Doupas, Friday, May 30 at 6pm.
Galeri Zilberman is pleased to present a solo exhibition of American artist Kay Rosen.
For more than three decades, Kay Rosen has focused on the slippery nature of language. Her art embraces the ways in which perception and re-cognition inform the visual, but goes beyond that: it seeks to display the mechanisms of language as a system of communication and through remodelling, re-presenting and re-enacting ordinary words and phrases to subvert the very essence of it.
Characterized by conceptual rigor and a minimalist sensibility, Rosen’s paintings and drawings are not without a humorous undertone that is partly invoked by the use of colour and, to a greater extent, by the subtly constructed word play, which grants a new wake of consciousness.
INSTINCT, one of the paintings in the exhibition, is divided into two almost identical lines; the difference lies in one letter, which is enough to give or alter the meaning (the first line features a –S whereas the second a -C). If we were to displace or substitute them, we would be messing with a closed system. The work is evidence of how a minor intervention can undermine the premise of a system.
Kay Rosen’s work has often embraced social issues and political causes. The 2013 Gezi Park protests that the artist has followed through coverage in the American media have been the main inspiration for a new wall painting, which is the centrepiece of the exhibition at Galeri Zilberman. The work, which resonates well in the current socio-political context, brings together two words that sound the same when spoken out, but are very different in writing. The omission of one vowel and the substitution of an -s with a -z can create a very different meaning. A small gesture can therefore bring about significant change.
Kay Rosen (b. 1943, USA) has exhibited widely internationally. She was recently awarded the CAA Artist Award for Distinguished Body of Work. Her work is in the permanent collections of major museums including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum, New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; The Art Institute of Chicago, and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Concurrent with her exhibition at Galeri Zilberman, she has a solo exhibition at Sikkema Jenkins & Co in New York.
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition.
For more information and images, please contact lal [at] galerizilberman.com.
