Ayhan Yavuz (Tresoea)
December 10 to December 31, 2019
Opening Reception: December 11, 6-8 pm (by RSVP only)
(RSVP only: RSVP to info@kateohgallery.com)
Kate Oh Gallery is delighted to present ELEMENTALS, a solo exhibition featuring works by Ayhan Yavuz (Tresoea). Ayhan Yavuz considers his style of art a combination of Expressionism, Symbolism, Pointillism and Art Nouveau. His artwork, filled with beautiful faces, intricate patterns, and hidden images, is done in acrylic paint. Yavuz considers himself a spiritual being. He likes the idea of bringing beauty, peace, joy, and harmony into the world. It is important for him to remain connected to his heart, as he believes that creating a beautiful piece of art is a way of giving back to life.
To channel the energy from the subjects of his paintings, Yavuz communicates with his pieces during the creation process. Yavuz, paying close attention to what his subjects are willing to reveal, does not stand in the way of how his artwork chooses to come to life. Those who have seen Yavuz’s art have expressed with such sincerity that his paintings contain fantastic energy, as if they truly are alive and interactive. The details of his pieces have even caused some to mistake them for meticulously crafted fabrics. The collectors of his paintings are delightfully surprised as they continue to come across hidden images within the patterns Yavuz has painted.
Yavuz gets his inspiration from anything he is lucky enough to experience. His profound connection to the spiritual realm allows him to have vivid dreams, those which contain breathtaking creatures and beings who want to express their knowledge and energy. These dreams have been with Yavuz since his early childhood, founding and developing his imagination, and have since guided him to share his creativity through art.
Perception is the foundation of the intricacy of Yavuz’s work. Each piece is a monument to his love of working with patterns, symmetry, and unity among colors. Yavuz’s pieces find a way to connect with all who view them. Regardless of cultural differences, one will always find harmony, peace, and joy in the beauty of Yavuz’s work that takes them out of their ordinary, and shows them something extraordinary.
BIO
Ayhan Yavuz was born in 1965 in Izmir, Turkey. After attaining his BA in Labor Relations, he completed his required military service as a second lieutenant in the Turkish infantry in Gallipoli. He then moved to England to improve his English and lived there for three years before making his final move to the United States. He currently lives in the greater Seattle area of Washington with his partner Max, where he has a wonderful relationship with his three beautiful daughters.
Yavuz’s path to creating a career in art was not a direct one. He briefly studied fashion design at the Art Institute of Seattle while he worked in the banking industry, but was ultimately unhappy there. After he left his fashion schooling, the artist in him was put on the back burner as he pursued his profession in finances to support his family. Even though he wasn’t actively creating anymore, Yavuz knew that the artist within him was there and needed to be freed. It took hard work and quite some time for Yavuz to get back to his passion for art. Through this journey of returning to calling, he learned that turning your back on your true self will cause you nothing but pain, regardless of how successful you are at fooling everybody else.
After spending so many years excelling in a career that had nothing to do with creativity, Yavuz knew that he had to start creating again. This became even clearer for him when his life’s journey led him to become a Buddhist monk for a short period of time. He practices Buddhism, not as a religion, but rather, a way of life. Mindfulness meditation is one of the most helpful tools he has learned, as he found that through creating he was able to experience a powerful deep meditation that connected him back to his imagination and love of art.
Yavuz was only able to truly shift his focus back to art again about five years ago. While he started painting he also fulfilled a childhood dream of his and worked on writing books. He has published two books, titled “In the Cradle of Umbra” and “Azra’s Labyrinth”. As he began his journey as rediscovering himself as an artist, Yavuz started exposing his art to the world. His artwork has been published in Rêve de Femmes (a French publication) for the past three years. He has participated in multiple juried art shows along the West Coast and has exhibited his work in Washington, Montana, and California.
Exuberant, celebratory, and a tad bit queer—these descriptors well index Ayhan Yavuz’s (also known as Tresoea) Kate Oh Gallery show, “Elementals.” Yavuz is a Turkish artist now based in America’s west coast (Washington, specifically) who has a background as a spiritualist and wholistic healer. These influences radiate in his works, which often times consist of various experimental approaches to portraiture and festivity. In Aries (2015), for instance, a decadent be-crowned woman's flaxen hair sumptuously falls before her shoulders like a ball gown woven from crisp fall leaves, her ivory skin gently covered by a lace frock. Leaves and natural motifs are a common stylistic penchant for Yavuz, whose meditative works foreground various divas who melt into geometric patterns. There is no classical demarcation between foreground and background in Yavuz’ works; in Fall (2015), branches and other arboreal figures weave in and out of a woman's butterfly-bisected eyes as a tiger seamlessly envelopes her face. In Siren (2018), Yavuz inverts the motif of the siren from Greek mythology—whereas, in Homer’s epics the siren is a most dangerous seductive creatures who lures nearby sailors with enchanting music, such that their ships collide with the rocky bay. Yavuz’ sirens profligate with crimson and orange roses outpouching their feminine silhouette—Yavuz retains the touch of suffuse seduction but does away with dread, stoking a realm of incantations and animal magnetism.
Works such as Visitor (2015) and Scorpio (2015) not only recall familiar motifs from Buddhism or astrology but make these signs sensual and comforting. Tenderly and playfully, Yavuz turns his brush towards the buoyant world of costume balls and masquerades—thus, it is fitting that his works have recently been displayed in RuPaul’s Dragcon. Expressing panpsychist flagrance, these geometric patterns dance and reticulate around floret-bedazzled corsets, fit for both the meditative gallery space or the bustling dance hall.
-Ekin Erkan