Taylan Ünal (born 1982) is a Turkish artist who lives in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

. His work includes

oil painting Oil painting is a painting method involving the procedure of painting with pigments combined with a drying oil as the Binder (material), binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on canvas, wood panel, or oil on coppe ...

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

s and

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant gr ...

Biography

Born in Istanbul, Ünal graduated from the

Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University (, or MSGSÜ) is a public art university in Istanbul, Turkey. The university's campus is located in the Fındıklı, Beyoğlu. The university was established in 1882 under the leadership of Osman Hamdi Bey. Hi ...

, Painting Department in 2011. He lives and works in

Beyoğlu Beyoğlu (; ) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Istanbul Province, Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 9 km2, and its population is 225,920 (2022). It is on the European side of Istanbul, Turkey, separated from the o ...

, Istanbul.

Work

In his work, Ünal focuses on oil painting and drawings. Ünal uses the effect of deformation in his paintings and refers to ideas of the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...

and the

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

artist

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

. His work revolves around the dualism between the chaos around human beings and inside them. His portraits are often based on abstract-

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

. Ünal seeks to understand the feeling of not belonging to anywhere, a body without

organs In a multicellular organism, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in a structural unit to serve a common function. In the hierarchy of life, an organ lies between tissue and an organ system. Tissues are formed from same type cells to a ...

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...

and the wish to flee. Whereas his

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face is always predominant. In arts, a portrait may be represented as half body and even full body. If the subject in full body better r ...

s have been perceived as characters with worries, Ünal prefers an interpretation of an

architectural Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

structure with dual identities. Ünal also worked as street artist in cities like Istanbul and

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. In his large wall paintings, he deforms faces and expressions to give emotional asset a different language. In 2021, Ünal has published "100faces" collection in

Opensea OpenSea is an American online marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), founded in 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah. It facilitates the buying, selling, and minting of NFTs across a range of blockchains. Headquartered in Miami, OpenSea sup ...

, so that he became an

NFT A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership and authenticity. It cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided. The ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchai ...

artist.

Exhibitions

Ünal's work has been exhibited with a number of solo and group exhibitions: 2021 * Pop-up group exhibition, PG Art Gallery, Istanbul. 2020 * Pop-up group exhibition, PG Art Gallery, Istanbul. 2019 * International group exhibition for "World Art Day", Adnan Saygun Art Center, Izmir. * Pop-up group exhibition, PG Art Gallery, Istanbul. 2018 * Group exhibition, Karaköy Kolektif, Istanbul. * Pop-up group exhibition, PG Art Gallery, Istanbul. 2017 * Group exhibition, Karaköy Kolektif, Istanbul. 2015 * Otonorm (solo exhibition), Galeri Artist Çukurcuma, Istanbul. 2014 * 7th group exhibition, Tio Ilar International Art Exhibition, Athens. 2013 * 6th group exhibition, Tio Ilar International Art Exhibition, Athens. * Solo exhibition, Galeri Artist Çukurcuma, Istanbul. * 6th group exhibition, Greek consulate generale (Şişmanoğlu megaro), Istanbul.

References

External links

Taylan Ünal Website

Taylan Ünal Instagram profile

Taylan Ünal Behance profile

Video portrait on Imoga Channel (in Turkish)

Interview with Gazete Bilkent (in Turkish)

Portrait on oldmag.net (in Turkish)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ünal, Taylan Turkish artists Street artists 1982 births Living people 21st-century Turkish male artists 20th-century Turkish painters 21st-century Turkish people 21st-century Turkish painters