LAYOVER brings together 5 women artists, all from different backgrounds including Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, New Zealand, and the United Arab Emirates, who received their Master’s Degree in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London.
While five women artists, who all were born within the last 15 years of the 20th century come together with this exhibition titled LAYOVER, they all express numerous commonalities in regards to the technique of painting in our current day.
The technique of painting presents itself as the artists’ means of describing a duality of cultural influence to express a universality within this visual language. Each artist, regardless of their difference in cultural backgrounds and upbringing, meet under a collective roof in an aim to adopt an honest personal expression within an increasingly polarised society. An approach of accepting the unexpected, embracing the unpredictable and utilising dualities, reflects their response to the uncertainties of our geopolitical climate.
The choice of exhibition site, Versus Art Project in Istanbul, Turkey, is significant when considering notions of cultural duality, being that it is situated between Europe and Asia. While each artist occupies spaces on the walls of the gallery together, as a unified collective, such occupation also serves as a territorial space that inhabits the presence of the individuals from multiple backgrounds. The audience is invited to view a flow of work that follows a similar conceptual thread, all rooted in cultural nuances and nomadic displacement of identity, diaspora, nationalism, and heritage.
"The fact that each detail, which appears to be imprecise and ambiguous but in fact which reference significant breaking points, that feelings come alive with each brush stroke, and that the harmonious and refreshing colour tones in the works, all shed light on today’s societal behaviour and approach to consumption. To understand the present day is crucial in comprehending the past and the future."
