Artists Emre Senan, left, and Aysegul Izer have a print exhibit called Impressions from Turkey at the FAB Gallery. Photograph by: Chris Schwarz, The Journal

Gilbert A. Bouchard, Freelance writer
Originally published: Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Impressions From Turkey: Recent Prints by Aysegul Izer & Emre Senan
Showing at: FAB Gallery, 1-1 Fine Arts Building, U of A Campus, 112th Street and 89th Avenue
From: Today until March 24. Meet the artists at the opening reception Thursday from 7 to 10 p.m.

Art of Ankara Ex-libris Society
Showing at: SNAP Gallery,
10309 97th St.
Until: April 14. Meet artist and Hasip Pektas, Ankara Ex-libris Society president, at the opening reception, Friday from 7 to 10 p.m.

Two exhibits at the FAB and SNAP galleries are giving Edmonton art fans a rare opportunity to see contemporary art from Turkey.

"The print work on display is very different from work we're used to seeing from countries like Japan, Thailand or Germany, both in the way they produce their prints and in their inspirations," says Liz Ingram, curator of the Impressions from Turkey exhibit at the University of Alberta's FAB Gallery.

The FAB show features art by Aysegul Izer and Emre Senan, two print/graphic artists and academics associated with Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city.

"Turkey is so fascinating because it is half-Asian and half-European and boasts a real melange of influences because it's always been at the crossroads of culture. Istanbul is one of the most cosmopolitan places on Earth and boasts a really rich culture and history," says Ingram.
"We really don't know as much about Turkey as we should, and this show is a good place to start learning about it."
The diversity of influences is instantly evident as soon as you start perusing the artwork of Izer and Senan on display at the two-storey FAB Gallery.
Senan's work, for example, eschews traditional Middle Eastern or historic artistic touchstones, riffing off of modern graphic design, comic art and the universal art of doodling.
"As part of my academic responsibilities I have to attend a lot of meetings and I find myself doodling," says the visiting artist. "I collected 30 years of these drawings a while back and put them into a show called The Meeting Minutes. The work you see here (at the FAB Gallery) is print work based on those original doodles."

Trained as a graphic designer, Senan says he doesn't feel he has to hold himself to any one style. He embraces various inspirations and subjects in his eclectic "melting pot" of influences.

Izer boasts an equally broad palette of influences and component visual pieces in her hybrid collage-based print works, created partly on the computer and partly by hand.

"These works in particular were inspired by the novel Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino," says Izer.

She says her work doesn't have any direct political messages, but it exploring the space between real cities and the parallel dreamed or imagined city.

"When cities don't have a sufficient natural component, they die," says Izer, who includes an environmental statement in some of her art.

As for the SNAP Gallery exhibit, curator Earl McKenzie says the "Art of Ankara Ex-libris Society" show was born two years ago when he visited Turkey for the marriage of his wife's brother.

"I decided to see if I could make some artistic connections when I was overseas, so I did some online research and contacted Hasip Pektas, the dean of fine arts at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey," says McKenzie.

"He's also the President of the Ex-libris Society, which was founded in 1997."
The society was created to celebrate the art form of bookplate design and displays a wide array of bookplates produced by a dozen contemporary Turkish artists.

Bookplates, also called ex libris (meaning "the books of"), are printed labels pasted inside a book to indicate ownership. In the past, traditionally lushly illustrated engraved bookplates were based on heraldic designs.
Current examples, including the bookplates on display at the SNAP Gallery, are more fancifully illustrated.

Work in the SNAP show is from various media including etching, engravings, woodcuts and digital prints. Artists on display are also producing work that ranges from traditional illustrative styles to edgy pieces using comic book art and political commentary.

"I really did not expect the incredible diversity of work when I went over there," says McKenzie.

© The Edmonton Journal 2007
(Re-published with permission from Gilbert Buchard)