Zeynep Kayan
Zeynep Kayan (1986, Ankara) graduated from the Communication and Design Department of Bilkent University and got her MA degree in the Fine Arts Department of MaHKU in Utrecht, Netherlands. She is co-founder of the independent art space Torun in Ankara. From September 2022 onwards, Zeynep Kayan will be an Artist in Residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Zeynep Kayan’s artistic practice focuses on exploring the repetitive structural setup of the variations she creates by using photography, video and sound pieces that are mostly in relation to portraiture and performance. Through experimentation and chance, the artist articulates a personal vocabulary of the "self", or of the "human condition", but rather seems to escape categorization. Using the image itself as material, Kayan chooses to define her works as experiments on the construction of an image through means of deconstruction that are mostly the result of her actions of going back to her own archive, "(re)creating 'new' from the 'old''". She aims not to let the imagery stay in one and only state and searches for ways to manifest this process that is inspired by movement, change and repetitive acts of production.
Recent solo shows and presentations include: one one two one two three (Zilberman Gallery, Berlin, 2022); Zona Maco Foto, (Mexico, 2022); Temporary Sameness (Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul, 2019), UNSEEN Amsterdam (Amsterdam, 2019), Constructed (Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul, 2016). Kayan's work has been shown in numerous group shows including Foto Wien (Vienna, 2022), Protocinema (Istanbul, 2021), Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, 2021), Evliyagil Museum (Ankara, 2020); Helsinki Contemporary Gallery (Helsinki, 2020); RijksOpen (Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, 2019 & Salt Galata, Istanbul, 2018); Field Meeting (New York, 2015); Rezan Has Museum (Istanbul, 2013); 1st Tbilisi Triennial (Center of Contemporary Art, Tbilisi, 2012); Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, 2011. Kayan was awarded second prize in the 2017 Kassel Dummy Book Award. The subsequent book was published by Akina books and launched at Unseen Amsterdam 2018.
Kayan lives and works in Amsterdam and Ankara.
> CV
> EXHIBITIONS
- From the top, on repeat
- Ivy
- That Pause of Space
- A highlight of ''one one two one two three''
- one one two one two three
- Recurrence 2
- Unlock
- Young Fresh Different 10: One Must Continue
- Temporary Sameness
- An Exile On Earth
- Constructed
- Pull the Rope We're Downstairs
- Uncomplete
- UNTITLED ORIGINAL
- EXISTRONG
- YOUNG FRESH DIFFERENT - I