Leyla Gediz, 1974

After graduating from the Austrian High School in Istanbul, Leyla Gediz went to London to study art at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Slade School of Fine Art, later completing her master’s degree at Goldsmiths University. Viewing art less as a means of expressing emotions than as a way of releasing herself from them, Gediz produces works shaped by her personal life story. Her paintings are distinguished by their spiritual compositions and the melancholy they carry. The restricted color palette that has evolved over the years often includes tones of black, white, grey, light blue, and pink, which relate to the nostalgic and emotional weight of the subjects she addresses. Treating painting and installation as a complementary part of a whole, the artist constructs her works both as individual pieces and as fragments of an ongoing narrative, one centered on curiosity and continuity.

At the center of Gediz’s work “The Last Layer” stands a female figure whose body is concealed by layers resembling files or cardboard boxes, while her head, hands, and legs remain visible. The figure, who is taking a selfie, is connected by a chain to a cooking pot, a gesture that points to the roles assigned to women by society. The checkered pattern in the background represents the empty space that appears when an image is removed in digital image editing practices. As a familiar visual language, this motif refers to situations in which women are unable to exist within society and are rendered invisible. In this context, the work reveals the tension between the spaces where women are visible and those from which they are excluded.