Erdil Yaşaroğlu’s second solo exhibition “Transatlantik” is ready to meet art lovers at the Alexandre Vallaury Building between December 25 and January 30, 2024.
After four years since his first exhibition “The Game” in 2019, which was memorable for its large-scale site-specific installations, Erdil now reveals the game in his mind with his sculptures rather than building a playground.
About struggle, reconciliation and sustainability…
“Transatlantik” points to the insight behind the artist’s familiar, colorful and bright faces, and to a mysterious and luminous world where the light fades and darkness reigns the deeper you go, but like the unimaginable creatures at the bottom of the ocean, Transatlantik heralds a glorious journey and carries the uneasiness of the times we live in, the wars that threaten humanity, and the destruction of nature that we ignore.
Erdil’s familiar forms, which have become his signature, meet stone, bronze and wood, the artist’s old friends. The stubborn stance of natural materials that almost defies the artist, the structure of natural materials that defies time, enriches with time and recreates itself after reconciliation, also represents the inner reckoning that constitutes this exhibition.
The artist describes his new exhibition as follows: “Usually, people first approach the sculptures I make from the colorful and cute side. But on the other hand, these are the little traps I have set to lure them into the stories of my sculptures.
We live in a very gray, unpleasant and difficult world. I like to tell our problems with joy, and Transatlantik, the title of the exhibition, is a good example. You come across a little transatlantic sculpture and this cute little yellow thing tells you how mankind has ruined the world.
In the Transatlantik exhibition, you will see the gray and black sides of my colorful inner world.”
Esra Sarıgedik Öktem, the founder of BüroSarıgedik, the artist’s national and international representative, who edited and managed Erdil’s second solo exhibition Transatlantik as well as his first, said about the new exhibition: “Erdil continues to surprise me. We often look at the world from opposite perspectives. He challenges me every time! It is an experience to understand what he sees, to think about what he tells. This dynamic between me and an artist I represent is like an ongoing game. Erdil is now in front of me with his inner journey. He speaks to us from a deeper place.”
As a result, Transatlantik, which invites us all on this journey into the unknown of the rabbit hole we have fallen down together, will be on view at the Alexander Vallaury Building between December 25, 2023 and January 30, 2024, except Mondays: 10:00 – 20:00 on weekdays, 11:00 – 19:00 on weekends, except Mondays.
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About the Alexandre Vallaury Building exhibition space
The Alexandre Vallaury Building has one of the most beautiful Belle Epoque facades in Istanbul.
It will host the second solo exhibition of Erdil Yaşaroğlu.
Alexandre Vallaury was born in Istanbul. After graduating from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1880, he returned to Istanbul and is the designer of many buildings that are considered part of Istanbul’s most important architectural heritage.
Among the most famous are the Cercle d’Orient building on Istiklal Street, the Ottoman Bank building on Bankalar Street, the Istanbul Archaeological Museum building, which is considered one of the first buildings in history to be designed as a museum, and the Pera Palas Hotel. The building at 99 Meşrutiyet Caddesi, which now bears the name of Alexandre Vallaury, was built in 1896 as the Union Français building. Between 2018 and 2022, the building will be used as a temporary space for the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, cementing its place on Istanbul’s art map.
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About Erdil Yaşaroğlu
Erdil Yaşaroğlu graduated from Kadıköy Anatolian High School and then from Mimar Sinan University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Sculpture Department. He started drawing cartoons professionally in the 90s. He created the “Komikaze” column in Limon and Leman magazines. He wrote several scripts and plays for television programs. He has given caricature courses at Boğaziçi University and Istanbul Bilgi University. In 2002, he founded “Penguen” magazine with his friends and published “Lombak”, “Kemik” and “Hayvan” magazines. In 2011, he entered the Guinness Book of World Records by drawing the world’s largest cartoon on an area of 12 thousand square meters. In 2014, he published “Super Penguin”, the first humor magazine for children. In 2016, he co-produced the animated film “Bad Cat Şerafettin”. He has sold more than one million copies of 19 books in his Komikaze series.
Erdil Yaşaroğlu, who has participated in many sculpture exhibitions at home and abroad, opened his first solo exhibition in Istanbul under the name “Oyun” in 2019. He continues to draw for “Super Penguin” magazine and sculpt in his studio in Istanbul.
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About BüroSarıgedik
BüroSarıgedik is an artist representation office founded by Esra Sarıgedik Öktem in 2017 to create support structures for artists.
As a project, BüroSarıgedik was founded with the desire and need to develop a response to the current conditions of the art scene and to work with artists within the framework of a closer and more robust model of artist representation;
BüroSarıgedik organizes local and international exhibitions, raises funds for the production of new works, prepares publications on artists, develops collaborations with institutions, and adds works of trustworthy quality to public and private collections.
BüroSarıgedik currently represents Meriç Algün, Vahap Avşar, Cengiz Çekil, Eda Çekil, Berat Işık, Erdem Taşdelen, Gülsün Karamustafa and Erdil Yaşaroğlu.
