LONDON.- Artspace London announces their Summer Exhibition, on view until 8th September. The collective exhibition will show a variety of dynamic art, photography, and sculptures by Middle Eastern, Iranian, Moroccan and Turkish artists. Alongside established artists such as Mohammed Abla, Samira Alikhanzadeh and Zakaria Ramhani work by emerging artists, including Amir Mousavi, Ebrahim Olfat and Fulya Asyali, will also be displayed.

This Summer Exhibition is a great opportunity to showcase the ever-increasing talent originating from the region and the ways in which these artists are taking their work into new dimensions.

Commenting on the first SUMMER SHOW for ARTSPACE LONDON, Ruba Asfahani, Art Director, said; “this show is a great way for us to really showcase some of the best talent from the Middle East, Iran and Turkey and by doing so, are providing London with a lot to think about. From mixed media, photographic work, to embroidery and even the use of Post-It notes, this exhibition will highlight exactly what the Middle East, Iran and Turkey is all about – the ability to combine their own cultures and traditions with the raw talent that they exude.”

SUMMER EXHITION ARTISTS:

Mohammed Abla:
Works by Mohammed Abla, a highly renowned Egyptian artist, will include pieces from both his ‘Family Portrait’ works as well as a new series contextualizing the social and political impact of the January 2011 revolution in Tahrir Square on his fellow countrymen and women.

Samira Alikhanzadeh:
In Samira Alikhanzadeh’s latest works, photographic images are printed digitally on wooden boards and painted over with acrylic. Mirror fragments are then strategically added playfully inviting the viewer to place themselves within the work and encouraging them to ponder their own identity, existence, mortality, and gender.

Halim Al Karim:
Halim Al Karims’s out of focus photography technique of blurring the identities of figures symbolize the un-kept promises of freedom to the people of Iraq. Pieces from both his Urban Witness series and Seclusion in Pigalle series will be on display.

Funda Alkan:
Funda Alkan has developed an incredibly contemporary take on embroidery by combining a traditional Turkish skill with the portraits of Hollywood movie stars from the 1940s, 50s and 60s.

Fulya Asyali:
Fulya Asyali is a much sought after young sculptor hailing from Turkey whose series on metamorphosis has gained her acclaim both in her native country and internationally.

Amir Mousavi:
Amir Mousavi, a young Iranian artist who originally began his artistic career in painting but by developing and honing his skills, arrived at a real passion and talent for photography. Finding that walls are a character of a city and the best way to create a mural, he began combining his skills in both photography and painting to create the series Lost In Wonderland. The Lost in Wonderland series has recently been acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Bahar Oganer:
Removing the identity of the figures in her works allows Bahar Oganer to assimilate the viewer into the painting, giving them the opportunity to make up a story of their own on her large canvases.

Ozan Oganer:
Lace would be given to brides-to-be in Turkey and Ozan Oganer used this idea to create a series of works using this very medium. By combining lace with acrylic and resin, the material becomes rock-hard and no longer has this typical association to delicate and unthreatening physicality. Instead he merges it with sculptures of naked young women and tribal masks.

Ebrahim Olfat:
Ebrahim Olfat provides a stark contrast with his beautiful and fluid contemporary take on traditional calligraphy mounted in a light-box. A graduate of the Iran University Medical Sciences and a member of the Calligraphers of Iran society, Olfat lives and works in Tehran.

Ardan Ozmenoglu:
Ardan Ozmenoglu has become known for his exciting compositions and his use of non-conformist materials, such as Post It notes. Ozmenoglu is commenting on the fragility of an object we frivolously use in our daily lives, and how, when forged into a work of art, it changes the dimension of the composition totally.

Zakaria Ramhani:
Zakaria Ramhani, a long established artist represented by ARTSPACE, creates large-scale portraits, which question the relationship between identity and otherness. Ultimately he is producing art works that deal with the role of the artist in society.

Sadegh Tirafkan:
In Sadegh Tirakfhan’s Human Tapestry series, he commemorates the traditional art and unknown artisans of Persian tapestries. Since 2006, he has been trying to combine current events with layers of hidden historical art; ultimately, to ease communication between people living in today’s world and those in his work.

Nazif Topcuoglu:
Nazif Topcuoglu has long been a familiar name in the Contemporary Turkish art scene but recently established himself as a big name in the international Contemporary Photography scene. Topcuoglu recreates scenes from myths, literature, or those that he has imagined himself. By doing so, he brings a modern feel to the scene, the lighting similar to that from a fantasy film, and the characters deeply embedded within the story within the composition.

Halil Vurucuoglu:
Halil Vurucuoglu’s eye for detail is the most incredible part of his work. The delicate nature of his version of decoupage, in which he layers hand-cut sections of coloured paper to ultimately create a three-dimensional large-scale work, is the complete opposite of how the tradition originally began.