İrfan Önürmen, 1958

İrfan Önürmen graduated from the Mimar Sinan University Academy of Fine Arts in 1987. He was a student of Neş’e Erdok.

One of the artists who since the mid 1990s brought new alternatives to figurative painting, İrfan Önürmen's works delves into the lifestyle of the modern city dweller. The issues of a new generation, which after 1980 couldn't find a foothold in history, nor in life; the alienated individual, striving to become other, but always falling short, are subjects common in the artist's paintings. Among his main characters are the lonely heroes of the shanty towns and the one-day-superstars of the media. Scenes such as the fake moments of happiness captured by the tabloids, the lynching attempts of the explosive ghetto, male and female relationships, are dominant in his works. Önürmen's paintings are woven with at times stern, at times poetic expressions. The artist renders visible, the artificial moments of a society turned into one great, cacophonous collage; the dilemmas and causes of what is commonly termed a "cultural erosion". Employing means of expression other than painting ever since his early works, he has recently added to his collages made up of cut newspapers and magazines, a transparent medium like tulle.

This work entitled “In the Room” is one of the most masterful works produced by the artist using gauze and fabric to create a three-dimensional optical illusion with layers of different depth, a frozen atmosphere lending drama to the relationship between two people. The installation resembling a black and white television screen that gives a deceptive impression of depth multiplying with diverse angles of vision.