Father and son team up at art exhibition

 

Istanbul (Dunya) – When Mehmet Güleryuz begins displaying his works  at the Empire Project Art Gallery in Istanbul (Siraselviler Cad. No 10, 1st Floor, Beyoglu) on March 7,  he will be teaming up with his son, Kerimcan Guleryuz, who owns the exhibition site.

Mr.Guleryuz, 75, is one the leading figures in the contemporary art scene in Turkey, and the exhibition titled "With Eyes Wide Open" will mark his 55th anniversary as an artist.

In the exhibition, which ends on April 27, he will be displaying a new series of paintings showing how greedy contractors are plundering Turkey's cities, destroying their natural fabric with monstrous high- rise apartment buildings, tasteless business offices and a hodge-podge of shopping centers.

"It's happening in front of everyone's eyes, and no one is doing anything about it," Mr. Guleryuz, an energetic, silver-haired and bearded figure, said in an interview. "We are seeing a destruction of construction. As the buildings go up, they resemble animal carcasses."

So Mr. Guleryuz's new line of large abstract paintings protests the spoiling of the natural surroundings of the cities with the construction craze.

 

One of his paintings, the 250 cm by 180 cm "Towards the City," depicts Asian and European Istanbul together as an organism in perpetual motion that works against mankind.

 

Squeezed between

Two other paintings "Night Sun" and "Far" show an urban area where humans are squeezed between towering buildings. They can hardly move and breathe.

Another of his paintings that is likely to be displayed is from an earlier collection, "The Broker," a stock broker, amidst computer terminals and shelves of documents.

He will also display 30 small drawings from a previous exhibition abroad.

"This isn't a real retrospective. Most of my works are new," Mr. Guleryuz said. "Each of my works is like a jumping spark. At each exhibition, I try to go beyond myself. One has to be an opponent of oneself and be able to kick oneself."

His son, Kerimcan Guleryuz, 44, who will be putting on the exhibition, describes his father as the "midwife of contemporary art in Turkey. He has been shouldering the movement for more than five decades."

Mr. Guleryuz, who comes from a long line of artists, is multitalented. He is a painter, sculptor, specialist in lithography and a former theater actor who has lived and worked in Turkey, the U.S., France and Germany. In addition to those countries, his works have also been exhibited in Dubai, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Iran, the Czech Republic, Egypt, China and Tunisia.

After graduating at the top of his class from the State Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, he studied painting and lithography in Paris. He also studied at actors' studios and also became a professional actor.

 

The son

His son, Kerimcan Guleryuz is the product of a Turkish father and an American mother. His mother came to Turkey in the early 1960s with the Peace Corps and met his father and they married. 

A Bruce Willis lookalike, Mr. Guleryuız studied photography at the Atlanta College of Arts and art history and philosophy at the University Maryland, but never took a degree. He worked several years in New York with leading art galleries, before returning to Turkey to start up his own business.

He established the Empire Project art gallery with the aim of bringing top international contemporary art shows to Turkey and to discover and display the works of young artists who have developed in the lands of what was once the Ottoman Empire.

"We wanted to irritate people with modern art," he said.

The art gallery also has an 85-seat auditorium where lectures are delivered and films showed on modern art.

He also operates the art gallery Polygon, where young artists can work.

"It is an experimental art gallery, which can be visited while artists work on their paintings and other arts," he said.