Emmanuel Fremin Gallery June 14 to July 28

Emmanuel Fremin Gallery is proud to announce it's first exhibition for Turkish artist Ardan Ozmenoglu. Post-It will run from June 14 to July 28 with an artist reception on June 14 from 6 to 8pm. Ardan Ozmenoglu is a Turkish mixed-media contemporary artist characterized by her original use of medium, design, and content. She is recognized for her distinct usage of post-it notes in an attempt to depict her everyday life living/working in Istanbul. Her technique involves adhering an array of post-it notes to her canvases as a base, topped by silk-screened vibrant imagery derived from popular culture. The result is a three-dimensional surface, adding a sense of depth and dimension to her work. The process of making a screen print is both precise and experimental, requiring careful preparation yet simultaneously allows for unplanned elements to enter the composition such as accidental smudges and spills that remain as part of the finished product. It is the double nature of the screen-printing process, its orientation to technological precision, and its openness to chance, that fascinate her most as an artist. Once the canvas has undergone the printing process, each post-it note can behave differently. While some lay entirely flat, others curl up, giving the viewer a peak at their original color out from underneath the folds of overlaid images. In addition to physical depth, her body of work conveys depth through its meaning. On the surface it is lively, radiant, and playful yet an entirely different undertone lingers beneath the surface. Ardan Ozmenoglu, "Love", 12" x 13" x 11" She first came across post-it notes while completing her MFA degree in Graphic Design at Bilkent University. Post-its are a very contemporary material, with no history and very much something of today, of the moment. People feel a strong connection to them because it’s an everyday commercial material that is used by all different types of people for all kinds of reasons. Post-it notes bring us comfort because they are simple, ordinary, and relatable. We leave them on the fridge to remind us of our grocery lists, we write sweet nothings to our lovers, we jot down things we need that are rather menial and tend to be forgotten. In an era where we are saturated with copious amounts of information it’s difficult to keep track of all the details and everything today is bound to be forgotten sooner or later. That is why you have to jot them down on Post-It notes. Through her clever use of post-it notes, Ozmenoglu creates pieces of art that are infused with sociopolitical commentary, uniting seemingly opposing ideas: the past and present, art history and contemporary art trends, creativity and consumerism, repetition and individuality. The post-its emphasize the duality exhibited in her work, particularly the concepts of unity and fragmentation. The images are whole yet fragmented and conversely, they are fragmented but also whole. Her work bridges the gap between centuries old practice printing with modern colors, glitters, paper, and images. Her bold and evocative art forces the viewer to consider everyday objects in a different light thus predicting the whole from pieces, supplying an undetermined dimension, and keeping the attention. The spectrum of vision between her works and the viewer is complex, ranging from the largely irrelevant to the highly specific. She never confines herself to any criteria, principles, limits, or boundaries when choosing a subject or medium to work on. www.emmanuelfremingallery.com Ph: 212.279.8555 Email: info@emmanuelfremingallery.com Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Facebook Follow us on Tumblr Follow us on Twitter #fineartmagazine