Portraits: Semiha Berksoy

Galerist is proud to present “Portraits”, the second solo show of the artist Semiha Berksoy between February 13 and March 23, 2019. Berksoy, continuously seeking novel ways to draw music and drama in her paintings, gives the central stage to the people who have played significant roles in her life and in her time. As a wonderful storyteller, Berksoy had a unique way of capturing the essence of the person she portrayed; allowing the soul to become visible beyond the visage. While the people in the portraits age in time, Berksoy stays forever young; always daring, always ahead. Her energy is reflected in her lines that defy any art-historical style and draw the viewer into her cosmic world. The portraits enliven, grow, travel, and tell the stories of the people from Berksoy’s musical, private, and fantasy worlds. Berksoy’s portraits had a dual function of being both characters and memoirs in her life: she surrounded herself with them, talked to them, and fed herself through them. Her bedroom, which she designed like an art installation, was covered from wall to wall with portraits that lived with her, mirroring her inner self and allowing her life story to be carried into the future. Daughter of a painter mother and a poet father, Berksoy grew up feeding on every aspect of art, and succeeded in her utmost desire to keep the people she was inspired by and loved the most eternal through her paintings. From her cosmic womb where the loved ones circulate, come out painful and awe inspiring stories and profound feelings for all to witness. High dramatic soprano, painter, poet, actress, performance artist, Semiha Berksoy is exceptional in her ability to cross between various fields of art and produce natural relations in between. In her love and passion for life, in her talent that allowed her to create every moment and to ensure life into everything she had created, she shone her light onto the 20th century and passed it in 2004