After a successful presentation at this year’s SCOPE Basel international art fair, Berlin Art Projects proudly presents Turkish sculptor Yasam Sasmazer, the newest addition to the gallery’s program of emerging artists.
Yasam Sasmazer was born in 1980 and studied Sculpture at the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul. She participates in various symposia on the subject of sculpture; her work has been shown in numerous biennials and exhibitions. Sasmazer lives and works in Istanbul.
Sasmazer’s wooden sculptures are life-sized, realistic depictions of children from somewhere between a dream and a nightmare: a seated boy absent-mindedly cradling a small bird in his hands, a grinning girl provocatively holding out her lollipop, a girl deep in thought with the enormous, distorted shadow of a wolf lurking at her back.
While we search for the purity and cuteness normally associated with children’s faces, in the end it is in vain. The children’s gestures seem awkward and still somehow disassociated from their bodies, they seem introverted, sometimes defiant, expectant and prepared to defend themselves.
The potential toward aggression – something inherent in every human being – is a central theme in Sasmazer’s works. Her “little souls” are still children in body and spirit, thus they lack a self-reflexive awareness of the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. At the same time, the artist’s focus is not guilt and innocence, but rather “the dark side” of the unconscious. Her children live in their own, often complicated world and operate according to their own values and standards. The fact that one senses that their world and values are inaccessible, even incomprehensible to others makes them unsafe and untrustworthy to others – and maybe, as Sasmazer herself says, it could be that they are more than just little angels: like adults, they show both good and bad behavior in the course of a day – and are just as capable of evil.
Biography
1980
born in Istanbul
2003
B.F.A. Sculpture, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Sculpture Department
2006
M.F.A. Sculpture, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Sculpture Department
lives and works in Istanbul.
Exhibitions
2009
SCOPE Basel Art Show 2009, Berlin Art Projects, Switzerland
Nord Art 2009, KiC – Kunst in der Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf; Deutschland
2008
Nameless Collective, Galeri 5, group exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey
Group exhibition, Çağla Cabaoğlu Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
13th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and Mediterranean, Puglia, Italy
Art Is My Playground, Group exhibition, Tersane, Istanbul, Turkey
Contemporary İstanbul Art Fair, Turkey
2007
Childish, Collective Exhibition, Art Gallery, Bilkent University Library, Ankara
Lulea Summer Biennial, Sweden
Public Space Skelleftea, Group exhibition, Anna Nordlander Museum, Sweden
Winds into Future I, selected works for the 13th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and Mediterranean, Galerie Kasa, Istanbul, Turkey
Widening Narrow Space, Collective Exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey
2006
Turkey – Poland, 2. Wood Sculpture Workshop, Istanbul, Turkey
ODTÜ Art Festival, Group exhibition, Ankara, Turkey
Art at Akmerkez 4, Group exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey
2005
Art at Akmerkez 3, Group exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey
13. International Wood Sculpture Symposium, Zühtü Müridoğlu, Değirmendere, Kocaeli, Turkey
2004
CNR Natural Stone Fair, Marble Sculpture Symposium Istanbul, Turkey
2003
2. Prize, Sakıp Sabancı Art Prize, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Sculpture Department, Istanbul, Turkey
Group exhibition sculpture, TUYAP, Istanbul, Turkey
Group exhibition Bronze sculpture, Galerie Örümcek, Istanbul, Turkey
1. International Stone Sculpture Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey
Group exhibition Stone sculpture, Kabataş High School, Istanbul, Turkey
Graduate exhibition, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey
2000
Uninterdiciplinary Apartment Project, Istanbul, Turkey
Made in Turkey, Group exhibition, Galerie Mine Sanat, Istanbul, Turkey
4. Internationales Stone Sculpture Symposium, Marmara, Istanbul, Turkey
Kapsama Alanı, Group exhibition, Istanbul, Turkey
1999
Group exhibition Bronze sculpture, Galerie Oda, Istanbul, Turkey
1998 Introduction to Creativity in Art 3”, Group exhibition, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey
Berlin Art Projects opened its doors in late 2008 in the Auguststrasse, 50b. Drawing from many years experience in the global art market, its founders have dedicated themselves to supporting the work of emerging and established artists living and working in Berlin. With a program of frequently changing exhibitions and events, the gallery is particularly committed to supporting and encouraging artists as they enter the art international world.
The gallery focus is new tendencies in contemporary painting, with a spectrum of represented works ranging from Christian Awe and Megan Olson’s abstract, drawing-like experiments with color to Sebastian Schrader and Tom Fleischhauer’s realistic figures in precise compositions. All of the gallery artists currently live and work in Berlin, and all are influenced and inspired by the city’s unique atmosphere.
With its two distinct Berlin branches, the gallery currently represents ten artists from Germany, the Netherlands, France, the Czech Republic, Turkey, the United States and South Korea. The project space in the Auguststrasse shows the artists’ latest works in solo exhibitions with an accompanying catalogue, while the spacious showroom on Unter den Linden – in the direct vicinity of Museum Island and the Deutsche Guggenheim – individual works by different artists are placed in dialogue with one another and made accessible to a wider public.
AUGUSTSTRASSE 50B | D-10119 BERLIN
TEL +49 (0) 30 240 87 606-0
FAX +49 (0) 30 240 87 606-20
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OPEN
MO-FR 11.00-7.00
SA 12.00-6.00
SO BY APPOINTMENT
