Uprise Art is pleased to present Terranova, a solo exhibition by Senem Oezdogan.

In Oezdogan’s latest paintings and drawings, colorfully pigmented biomorphic forms drift atop smooth gradients in steel blue. Twisting and turning, these forms call to mind the gentle curve of an unfurling petal or the crease of an eyelid. Beyond any verifiable recognition, these paintings speak to the shape-shifting quality of perception and how form and volume can align to create a sense of illusionistic space.

This series builds upon several previous directions in Oezdogan’s practice and culminates in a body of work that reflects the evolution of her persistent curiosity in the way form is created and disrupted. From her gradient works that play with pure delicate linework and chromatic transitions to create concave and convex constructions that shift from foreground to background, to her floral works that meditate on organic shapes in nature while simultaneously upending those shapes with abstraction, Oezdogan has fused these two different lines of inquiry together to expand our understanding of the nuanced way we perceive the world.

Oezdogan’s paintings transform shape into form, form into volume, and volume into emotion. It is through this transfiguration that perception itself becomes a fluid and mutable entity.

In these works, the artist is particularly interested in the material transformation of liquid paint and hardened pencil into an illusory sense of depth and volumetric form on a two-dimensional surface. The paintings each encompass microcosmic systems of interconnected relationships where the plasticity of form builds upon and supports each distinct element.

Oezdogan’s paintings transform shape into form, form into volume, and volume into emotion. It is through this transfiguration that perception itself becomes a fluid and mutable entity.

Senem Oezdogan (b. 1980) is a Brooklyn-based mixed media artist whose works meditate on the visual phenomenon of optical illusions through color and form. Smooth gradients give a sense of volume to the bold shapes depicted in Senem’s work that are subsequently flattened by her illusionistic use of spatial composition. Her color palette is equally beguiling, disrupting foreground and background and constantly forcing the viewer to reorient their sense of perspective.