Mehmet Sinan Kuran: Nowhere. Now Here.

Anna Laudel presents Mehmet Sinan Kuran’s extensive solo exhibition titled Nowhere. Now Here. between September 8–December 4, 2022. Inviting the audience to question the possibilities in life, Nowhere. Now Here. is an expanded continuation of his previous exhibition titled Posthumous, which means “afterlife” in Latin. The artist focuses on the liberation of the soul and offers a vibrant narrative by turning the exhibition into a joyful commemoration.

Nowhere. Now Here. presents a pluralistic world view, as well as Kuran’s own artistic approach full of irony, joy and sadness in the light of different disciplines including drawings, sculptures, paintings, ceramics, light boxes, glass, found objects, sketchbooks and installations. Kuran reflects the layers of the soul and the importance of the experiences gained at the different stages of our lives including childhood, youth, middle age and old age and constructs his own death ceremony with a joyful ritual, exploring new ways of a peaceful, pleasant and chaotic world full of light.

The artist takes the art lovers on a journey by reversing Nietzsche’s representation of the child. Kuran inverts the situation between childhood and old age, like in the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and sheds light on birth and death, youth and old age, and knowledge and ignorance. Folding science fiction, myth or a ritualistic belief like an origami, the artist creates a conceptual framework that the more an individual reaches higher consciousness and experiences the whole world with age, the more s/he becomes child-like, and the more a person becomes child-like, the more s/he finds peace. 

The artist creates three universes that are named “Earth, Sky and Sea”, where each drawing or figure presents the value of mortality, the end of life, and the meaning of being mortal, unveiling the concept of death in a very cheerful, festival-like manner, which is rather unlikely for humankind.

Featuring a selection of Mehmet Sinan Kuran’s new artworks that lays the foundation of a new world with a beautification about his own death, Nowhere. Now Here. can be visited until December 4, 2022 at Anna Laudel Istanbul. 

*The content of this press release is taken from the text written by Melike Bayık for the exhibition book. 

Mehmet Sinan Kuran
Born in 1964, the self-taught painter Mehmet Sinan Kuran began his art career by sketching on journals. Internally driven, and emotionally charged, Mehmet Sinan Kuran’s original miniature sketches have been described as ‘’complex yet uplifting’’ paintings. ‘’I have been drawing every single thought in my head‘’ says Kuran. He made art all throughout his life until finally he gathered the pieces of his collective consciousness and streamed them onto his works, creating his genuine style. The artist’s innate talent fuelled by the tradition of Hieronymus Bosch, speaks wildly in his electric colours, illustrating the visionary madness of his inner world. Kuran’s works are in private museums and collections.