Murat Yukselir – Still Life
Cell Gallery
June 21 – July 1, 2018
Murat Yükselir was born in Gaziantep, Turkey in 1984 and was brought to Canada at the age of 10. He earned a B.A. in Illustration from Sheridan College in 2009 and shortly after landed at The Globe and Mail, where he has worked since as a graphic artist and illustrator. Sometime around 2013, the relentlessly digitalized nature of his office-work kindled a desire to explore more traditional (i.e. analog) methods of creating art.
STATEMENT
My practice concerns figurative, life-sized sculptures modeled initially from clay, rendered with cast resins, and finished with paints. The pieces are part of an ongoing series inspired by musings and reflections on life. Through my art, I contemplate the circumstances we are born into, the forces that influence us, and the decisions we make in response. I think about human desire and the struggle for personal growth. Such daydreams invite my imagination to form images. When those images strike me as uniquely powerful, I’m driven to turn them into sculptures.
The life-sized scale of my work invites viewers into spaces of intimate observation. Graphite finishes create an illusion of stone, which invokes the heaviness of my philosophical subject-matter and welcomes the stillness necessary for contemplation. Although my work is personal, I trust that the figures are able to speak a more universal language.