“Game Over / Let’s Play”: ELVAN ALPAY

15 December 2017 - 27 January 2018

Galeri Nev İstanbul is excited to present a new solo show by Elvan Alpay titled “Game Over/ Let’s Play”. The show features twelve recent monosized paintings of the artist.

 

In her solo exhibition titled “Biophilia II” in 2015, Alpay had transformed the gallery space into a surreal universe. This time, taking further her affinity with the flora and fauna of nature, she adds three-dimensionality to the ecosystem she creates in the exhibition space.

 

The colorful drawings of flowers and animals that constitute the backbone of Alpay’s particular style form the background of her canvases. She uses polyester cutouts painted with acrylic and  pastes them on canvas. The attached flowers and plants grow out of the canvas as newly blossomed plants of spring. The surface of the painting then becomes a playground for bee-eaters and frogs that hide and appear on a fairytale like flora of the canvas.

 

The show invites viewers into an oasis reminiscent of the colorful, healing and soothing aspects of nature. Yet the title of the show Game Over / Let’s Play, refers daintily to the social and political order that we are facing today. It implies that the current system continues with an eternal stumble and should come to an end, giving birth to a more humane and sustainable system instead.