Balkan Naci İslimyeli, 1947-2022

Balkan Naci İslimyeli studied painting at the Marmara University Fine Arts Faculty from 1968 to 1972. İslimyeli works in photography, writing, painting, sculpture, and performance, and the themes he addresses include time, gender, tradition, memory, communication, existence, and personal and cultural identity. Since the 1970s, thanks to his interest in cinema, he has produced works that question the dynamic structure of synchronicity, fiction, and space.

İslimyeli’s work frequently includes his own portrait and handwriting, because these both reveal the broad identity of a person. While examining his own position of being caught between the past and present and East and West, İslimyeli also compels the viewer to reconsider their own position within the cultural complexities of modern Turkey.

In “Conversation I”, İslimyeli depicts a woman sitting in a seat, which we see from the side. Contrary to expectation, the figures in the “Conversation” paintings are silent, and they acquire an additional ironic meaning when they are hung opposite one another.