Ahmet Oran
6 November – 18 December 2010
Rampa
Şair Nedim Caddesi No: 21a
Akaretler 34357 Beşiktaş
Istanbul – Turkey
T +90 212 327 0800
F +90 212 327 0801
Tuesday – Saturday 11.00 – 19.00
“With his focus reduced to fundamental painting processes, Ahmet Oran can be considered a representative of processual painting, a group in which he occupies a place fully his own.”
—Günther Oberhollenzer, Curator, Essl Museum, Vienna
Rampa is pleased to present Ahmet Oran’s solo exhibition between November 6 and December 18.
Born in 1957 in Çanakkale – Turkey, Oran graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul in 1980. He pursued his education by attending the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Living in Istanbul and Vienna, Ahmet Oran has had 30 solo exhibitions since the mid ’80s and exhibited in more than 25 group exhibitions.
On a canvas grounded in black, Ahmet Oran applies several monochrome paint layers in colours such as blue, red, yellow and grey. The sequence of colours and the colour tones are defined in advance with great precision. Once the last layer has been applied and worked on—sometimes the image will remain monochrome; sometimes several colours will be allowed to blend on the surface once the artist starts “opening the painting” as he likes to call it. Frequently working on more than one canvas at the same time, Oran employs different palette knives and pieces of wood of varying sizes. These pieces of wood serve him to create wide strips by peeling off the canvas. The resulting colours differ in density, mixture and structure.
Oran’s paintings are abstract and include no reference to figurative elements. They are reduced to the essentials: colour and form. While unearthing each layer of colour, he creates compositions reminiscent of reliefs. When examined up close and particularly from the side, the surface of his paintings carries a 3-dimensional, extremely plastic feel.
The artist employs computer to pre-plan his paintings. Although Oran uses computer design for the main concept of his paintings and meditates scrupulously on the whole process of production of each of his paintings, his work does not leave an impression of dull composition or lifeless application on the viewer.
In recent years, colour has been increasingly prevalent in Oran‘s work. It is as if the sound, melody and noise of Istanbul are reflected in his paintings. The calmness and docility of his earlier works have been replaced by a colourful carnival in this exhibition. The exhibition hosts more than 30 canvases and is particularly significant as it is Oran’s first solo exhibition in Istanbul after a pause of five years.
This press release has been prepared with references to Günther Oberhollenzer’s article “Colour Fields Exposed and Drawing in Paintings.”
