MUAZ ÖZDEN
2DBorn in 1992, Muaz Özden completed his undergraduate education at Sakarya University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting in 2019. The artist's practice generally encompasses various disciplines such as painting, drawing and installation, and his research focuses on concepts such as language, belonging, temporality, inside-outside and space. The artist focuses on associating these concepts with belonging, existence and ambiguity, creating layered areas by relating to the lost and the missing with references from his personal experiences and roots. The artist has also been performing as a member of the collective avant-garde music group Dolapdere Noise Orchestra for the last 2 years. Muaz Özden lives and works in İstanbul.
To me, art is a field of practice and thought that makes us question our way of existence in life, provides the basis for searching for and repairing what is/was in our past or what we feel is missing, and opens up a space to reevaluate the present accordingly, turning life into an object of research. I personally believe that the inclusiveness of artistic expression lies in what does not show itself or where it crackles. In this context, my works have a layered formation process which of course an intellectual process. My work has a flexible spectrum, but I think over language, sense of belonging and temporality as main topics, and by focusing on the transformations and ambiguous areas amongst these concepts, I try to make the internal and physical fluctuations we experience both personally and socially visible through various metaphors. As some of the metaphors in question, I basicly take domestic objects that I have personal ties to, out of their context and the time period they belong to, and move them to a space where they do not belong, where they fall into the void or turn into an undefined organism. My mediums mainly consist of oil painting, drawing, watercolor and occasionally site-specific installations. However, I do not ignore the possibility of the material changing 180 degrees at any moment, depending on the politics of the idea. Long story short, depending on the issue, everything is open to innovation, transformation, and pushing the boundaries. The “Burden” series that appear here in Shopigo consists of hybrid forms that resist merely with their own existence and stand in the void, relating to a state of otherness and distancing that takes its seeds of ideas from the pandemic period. Simply various states of situations that we experience in the geography we live in and that have become a ‘burden’ on us.
2023 ‘After a Sleepless Night’ Duo Exhibiton with Elif Özen, Kairos Gallery, TR
2023 Contemporary İstanbul Bloom Art Fair, Kairos Gallery, İstanbul, TR
2023 ‘Homecoming’ Group Exhibition, Kairos Gallery, İstanbul TR (Cooperation with İreland Embassy)
2022 Young Fresh Different 11th Edition, Zilberman Gallery, İstanbul, TR
2021 One Akaretler, Akaretler Row Houses, İstanbul, TR
2021 BASELECTED, Tophane-i Amire, İstanbul, TR
2020 Keep On Keeping On, Central Energy Museum, İstanbul, TR
2019 BASE, Akaretler Row Houses, İstanbul, TR
2019 Justinianus-Bridge, Ofis Art Center, Sakarya, TR
2018 Plato Sanat, Rota Art Exhibition, İstanbul, TR
2017 Mustafa Kemal Culture Center-Young Event 7th Edition, İstanbul, TR
Born in 1992, Muaz Özden completed his undergraduate education at Sakarya University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting in 2019. The artist's practice generally encompasses various disciplines such as painting, drawing and installation, and his research focuses on concepts such as language, belonging, temporality, inside-outside and space. The artist focuses on associating these concepts with belonging, existence and ambiguity, creating layered areas by relating to the lost and the missing with references from his personal experiences and roots. The artist has also been performing as a member of the collective avant-garde music group Dolapdere Noise Orchestra for the last 2 years. Muaz Özden lives and works in İstanbul.
To me, art is a field of practice and thought that makes us question our way of existence in life, provides the basis for searching for and repairing what is/was in our past or what we feel is missing, and opens up a space to reevaluate the present accordingly, turning life into an object of research. I personally believe that the inclusiveness of artistic expression lies in what does not show itself or where it crackles. In this context, my works have a layered formation process which of course an intellectual process. My work has a flexible spectrum, but I think over language, sense of belonging and temporality as main topics, and by focusing on the transformations and ambiguous areas amongst these concepts, I try to make the internal and physical fluctuations we experience both personally and socially visible through various metaphors. As some of the metaphors in question, I basicly take domestic objects that I have personal ties to, out of their context and the time period they belong to, and move them to a space where they do not belong, where they fall into the void or turn into an undefined organism. My mediums mainly consist of oil painting, drawing, watercolor and occasionally site-specific installations. However, I do not ignore the possibility of the material changing 180 degrees at any moment, depending on the politics of the idea. Long story short, depending on the issue, everything is open to innovation, transformation, and pushing the boundaries. The “Burden” series that appear here in Shopigo consists of hybrid forms that resist merely with their own existence and stand in the void, relating to a state of otherness and distancing that takes its seeds of ideas from the pandemic period. Simply various states of situations that we experience in the geography we live in and that have become a ‘burden’ on us.
2023 ‘After a Sleepless Night’ Duo Exhibiton with Elif Özen, Kairos Gallery, TR
2023 Contemporary İstanbul Bloom Art Fair, Kairos Gallery, İstanbul, TR
2023 ‘Homecoming’ Group Exhibition, Kairos Gallery, İstanbul TR (Cooperation with İreland Embassy)
2022 Young Fresh Different 11th Edition, Zilberman Gallery, İstanbul, TR
2021 One Akaretler, Akaretler Row Houses, İstanbul, TR
2021 BASELECTED, Tophane-i Amire, İstanbul, TR
2020 Keep On Keeping On, Central Energy Museum, İstanbul, TR
2019 BASE, Akaretler Row Houses, İstanbul, TR
2019 Justinianus-Bridge, Ofis Art Center, Sakarya, TR
2018 Plato Sanat, Rota Art Exhibition, İstanbul, TR
2017 Mustafa Kemal Culture Center-Young Event 7th Edition, İstanbul, TR
