Watermelonshow by Nazım Ünal Yılmaz

OJ is happy to present Nazim Unal Yilmaz’s solo exhibition ‘Watermelon Show’

“If you are a drawing room artist, for drawing rooms, for youth groups, for convents, for Ambassadors, for movie houses, how do you report to work?… dressed, you can bet!… in some handsome getup!… naturally! In popular attire!.. you have to!… but if you are of a lyrical nature!…born a poet!…truly lyric!… then, that will no longer do!… there are no costumes to fit your nature!… nerves exposed, you must rush forward, introduce yourself !… your nerves hanging out!.. your own!… not somebody else’s!… not just naked!… to the quick!… more than stripped!… your ego standing forth!… rashly!… for all to see!”*

Nazım Ünal Yilmaz’s solo painting exhibition opens its doors on Friday, May 11th. The exhibition can be seen at OJ Art Space until 3 June.

“Disrespect for the canon of painting while at the same time using and working with it, a certain disrespect for the self and its construction, a candor to cut up both and put them back together these are features of Yilmaz ́s paintings. Because of the ability to make brush strokes appear as though they were blown there by a breeze, but have nevertheless landed precisely. The way he treats the surface of the canvas with a certain carelessness while at the same time being very aware of what he brings to it; even tastelessness, deliberate dilettantism, unpleasant colors, blurriness, are always intended; the paradox between skill and working against it creates a tension in Yilmaz ́s painting. There is also the fact that he has an interest in dissecting the painterly space and to depict emotional spaces by letting the old clash with the new, the classical frameworks of painting, history, and myths with the subjective and/or the contemporary political. In this way his technique and his image content are mirror images of one another; both a continuous collision of times, both always working against something to have something else appear out of the depths, and not without humor.”**

*Louis-Ferdinand Celine, Conversations with Professor Y, YKY 2013 Translation and Introduction by Stanford Luce
**Marlene Haring

Born in Trabzon, Turkey, Nazim Ünal Yılmaz, completed his B.A. in ‘Painting Department’ in Fine Arts Faculty from Anadolu University. Upon completing his masters degree at Vienna Fine Arts Academy in 2010, he participated to The New York School of Visual Arts guest artist program, same year followed by a second artist program at the KunstHaus Balmoral in 2015. The artist’s works have been exhibited in various international art spaces such as; Funktion Room, London, Kunstverein, Vienna, Mekan68, Vienna, Krokus Gallery, Bratislava, KunstBüro, Vienna ve Sanatorium, Istanbul, Kunstraum D21, Leipzig, Arp Museum, Remagen, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Gallerie C24, New York, Kunstforum BACA, Vienna, KunstBüro, Basel, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna. His latest solo show ‘Fieberblasenmond’ took place in PSM, Berlin in 2018.