yasemin özcan

yasemin özcan

Yasemin Özcan
Dead-End of Bliss
22.9 - 26.11.2016


artSümer is proud to host Yasemin Özcan’s fourth solo exhibition, “Dead-End of Bliss”.

Following her previous exhibitions, “Elmaslı Apt.” (2004), “threehundredone” (2009) and “What is it that you are worried about?” (2014, collaboration with Banu Cennetoğlu), through “Dead-End of Bliss”, the artist focuses on concepts which she has been working with in the last few years. The exhibition includes a new body of work, questioning justice, equality, coexistence, gender, and cultural identity.

Expanding on her devotion to material, the artist picks everyday objects like traditional ceramic storage cups (sugar-tea-coffee), plates, and street signs—she employs gold as a symbol for power, copper for opposition, and green fabric for sanctitude, thus exploring the value relationship we establish with objects. Özcan traces knowledge and wisdom, which have changed form in today’s world.

Documenting a sprouting bean at her kitchen sink or looking at a 700-year-old black mulberry tree, the same question seems to drive the artist: “Could we be friends in the lap of gazelles and lions?”


Yasemin Özcan (1974, İstanbul) is a visual artist and writer. Özcan received her degree in ceramics and glass from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul. Özcan’s works have been shown at various institutions including SALT Beyoğlu, WKV Stuttgart, Secession-Vienna, Arter, Apex, CCS Bard-New York, Bochum Museum, DEPO and Ludwig Forum Museum. Recently, she participated in exhibitions including “Kiev, Moscow and Beyond– 20 Years of Spring” at DEPO (2015); “Century of Centuries” at SALT Beyoğlu (2015), “This Secret World That Exists Right There In Public” at Rampa (2014), Artists Pick Artists at .artSümer (2014), “What Is It That You Are Worried About?”, RODEO (2014) in Istanbul. She attended residencies at Cite des Arts, Paris (2012), Can Xalant Center for Contemporary Art, Mataro, Spain (2009) and Transfer, NRW, Germany (2006).