Gülay Semercioğlu, 1968

Born in 1968 in Istanbul, Gülay Semercioğlu received a BA from the Mimar Sinan University Painting Department, after which she earned an MA from the same university’s Institute of Social Sciences.

Semercioğlu has an abstract, minimal lexicon, and the works she weaves of colored wire draw on the richness created by relationships of color and light. Semercioğlu avoids introducing visual clutter to her work, relying simply on illusions generated by superposing textures. When light strikes dense textures of tightly-pulled metallic wires, diverse tones of color are emitted. Thus, light produces a variety of forms from a single, monochrome surface. Realized with multiple layers of iron wire, originally manufactured for industrial purposes, the works also emphasize the act of weaving through the physicality of the material. Though flat, they are more like sculpture than painting: three-dimensional illusions develop on their surfaces. 200 cm in diameter, “Red Vortex” is a large-scale work which, with the tension of the steel wire, weaves an endless current and dizzying whirlpool along an elegant flower-like form.