Ascension

The work of Gülsün Karamustafa, who graduated from the painting department of Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts in 1969, embraces a variety of media, including painting, installation, sculpture, and video. Karamustafa, who came to prominence with her paintings that examined images related to cultural identity in the 1970s, a time when the social structure of large cities of Turkey were being reshaped by industrialisation and migration, expanded her production in the 1980s to encompass objects and installations. Karamustafa dedicated a period of her career to tackling “kitsch” as a language, in her works combining flannel fabrics, exotic landscape motifs, clothes, curtains, and other household objects. The artist examines icon painting, opens up to discussion the orientalist perspective, and focuses on the representational relations of the current hybrid aesthetic that is being formed.