Fake Freedom Show: Leyla Gediz

Leyla Gediz made her debut into the international art scene with “Atlantis 2000”, an installation of a single photograph and 118 graphite portraits, exhibited during the 7th Istanbul Biennial in 2001. The marine depicted in the photograph was one of 118 crewmembers on board in the Kursk submarine disaster, 2000. Gediz explored the possibilities of repetition by arriving at a new portrait every day, a chilling homage to the victims.

Galerist has the honour of hosting the first one-person exhibition of Leyla Gediz. Fake Freedom Show is a display of recent paintings by the artist, and an opportunity for the viewer to re-evaluate his own relation to the medium.

Fake Freedom Show poses two intertwined questions, one of the artist’s freedom in action, and the other of the viewer’s freedom in interpretation.

Entering the first room, the viewer is surrounded by an unexpected grouping of paintings. What keeps “Bauhaus”, “Old/New”, “Stain” and the others together? Larger works are spared for the second room. Among them “Car Dump” surprises with its plural and minimalist structure, and other paintings in the room enhance the sense of humor it creates. Almost every painting holds a hint of popular culture, and the viewer witnesses how Gediz draws the personal subtly from the popular, and offers it a monumental status. Finally, in the third room, “Ritchie”, “Not Because I Want To!” and “The Last Scene” are some of the paintings awaiting the viewer, all of which skilfully conveying the artist’s compassion for play and tragedy.

Leyla Gediz was born in Istanbul in 1974. She studied painting at the University of London, UCL, Slade School of Fine Art. She received four awards, and graduated with first class honours. Gediz then took a master’s degree at GoldsmithsCollege, where she received a distinction for her thesis that questions the role of gender in art production.

Gediz is a welcomed forerunner of a long-expected new trend in painting in Turkey.