Gate 27, farklı pratiklerin araştırma ve üretim süreçlerini desteklemek ve disiplinlerarası etkileşime zemin yaratmak amacıyla 2019’da kurulmuş bir uluslararası konuk sanatçı programıdır.
Gate 27, farklı pratiklerin araştırma ve üretim süreçlerini desteklemek ve disiplinlerarası etkileşime zemin yaratmak amacıyla 2019’da kurulmuş bir uluslararası konuk sanatçı programıdır.
Adopting the practice of oil painting as a method of artistic expression, Ahu Akgün and Levent Aygül work with paint, surface and composition with different tendencies. As residents at Gate 27 Ayvalık during the months of June and July, the artists will explore the history, culture, crafts, and landscape of Ayvalık with the aim of creating new work, titled “Looking at the Same Thing,” that makes their different perspectives visible within similar frameworks.
Ahu Akgün’s art practice is based on oil-on-canvas painting and focuses on personal encounters. The moments, situations, and objects that we normalize in daily life are at the center of her work, as she looks at the causes and consequences of the events around her. In addition, she determines what the images they create can tell beyond the visible and thinks about possible sub-meanings. She also presents images that already have a place in the audience’s memory with new meanings.
Ahu Akgün was born in 1985 in Istanbul. She completed her bachelor degree in the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Department (2009) and her master’s degree in the Sabancı University Visual Arts and Communication Design Program (2018). She is currently continuing her Proficiency in Art Program in the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Department. In addition to winning the 37th Akbank Contemporary Artists Award in 2019, Akgünhas participated in many group exhibitions such as “Us Actually” (Mixer, 2020), “Olympos Exhibitions-Landscape” (Zülfaris Synagogue, 2021), “Atış SerbestMECMU” (Barın Han, 2021), Past Present Istanbul” (Sakip Sabancı Museum, 2021); “Wizard and the Garden” (Erimtan Museum, 2021); and “Rounded by Sleep” (Arter, 2022). In 2020 she opened her personal exhibition titled “Sebeb-i Visit” at the Mixer Project Room. She continues to live and produce in Istanbul.
Levent Aygül prefers as simple a storytelling as possible in his paintings. The everyday images he paints are quite ordinary in their own nature. While conveying these images, the artist uses oil on canvas and stained glass as his main materials in order to create a sense of monochrome harmony and depth. He aims to ensure that the viewer’s gaze spreads over the whole composition, rather than being fixed on a certain point, with frames that he constructs on the surface which appear and disappear.
Levent Aygül was born in 1976 in Istanbul. He completed his master’s program in 2007 and the Proficiency in Art Program in 2016 in the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Department, where he also completed his undergraduate education in 2003. He works as a doctoral faculty member in the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Painting Department Stained Glass Workshop.
Aygül, who opened his first solo exhibition “Winter Sleep” at Gallery Splendid in 2009, has taken part in the “Free to Shoot” exhibitions held since 2012, both as an artist and as a part of the organization team. Some of the group exhibitions he participated in with his stained glass and painting works include: “The Visible State of Things” (Kasa Gallery, 2022); “Lost Candle in 2022” (Ferda Art Platform, 2022); “Mecmu” (Barın Han, 2021); “ Sketch State” (Gallery 5, 2018); “Pool” (BantMag Venue, 2016); “Dispossessed_les” (24th Tuyap International Istanbul Art Fair, 2014); and “Air Gap” (Galerist, 2007). He continues producing his works in his workshop in Istanbul.