Uniform: Leyla Gediz

Galerist is pleased to announce the third solo exhibition by Leyla Gediz. In her new works, the artist engages in further confinements; escaping the constraints of “commercial stylization” and “mass production” respectively, discovering new values.

 Presenting twenty works of oil on canvas, five of which are portraits, “Uniform” defines a remarkable step in the process of the artist’s stylistic identity. In an attempt to resist much of contemporary art’s tendency to produce concepts; Leyla Gediz rather welcomes the autonomy of painting; adopts a counter standpoint and advocates the freedom of perception. 

 The figurative richness of her past exhibitions, where the motive was more to continually challenge the viewer’s attention, is replaced in “Uniform” with one of the oldest pursuits in painting, the quest for an individual style. In her pursuit, apart from limiting the content and form of her paintings, Leyla Gediz confines herself to the dominance of blue and grey tones, in resemblance of a school uniform; henceforth providing the most prominent expression of her admiration in notions such as “discipline” and “economy in painting”.

The “Uniform” exhibition catalogue hosts a work by “The Word Department”, compiled by Corinna Till, 2004. Rather than directly referring to Leyla Gediz’s paintings, the text presents an opportunity for the viewer-reader to reflect on the similarities between pictorial and textual concerns.

Leyla Gediz, who presently lives and works in Istanbul, was awarded with an MA in Visual Arts by Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1999. Besides her previous solo exhibitions at Galerist, she has shown her work nationally and internationally, including the 7. Istanbul Biennial, at The Museum of Modern Art Saitama / Japan, in Martin Gropius Bau / Berlin, Aksanat and Proje 4L/ Istanbul.