Curator: S. Çağatay Özkefeli
Artists: Gözde Yıldırım
Gözde Yıldırım Gözde Yıldırım is a Mersin-based visual artist. She began her education at Mersin Nevit Kodallı Fine Arts High School; studied the discipline of form and volume at Mersin University's Department of Sculpture; and graduated from Mustafa Kemal University's Department of Art and Painting Teaching. She is currently pursuing her master's degree. At the center of her practice lies the concept of "the formation of memories." She approaches memory not as a recalled past, but as an ongoing process that continues to take shape, overlapping and partially concealing itself. In her canvases, faces cannot be contained within a single identity: a second face emerges from behind the first, and at times three different gazes share the same surface. Her eye, shaped by the discipline of sculpture, seems to have taught her to layer, carve, and open the figure rather than model it. Hands hold a special place in the artist's vocabulary. They sometimes cover the face, sometimes frame it, and sometimes appear ready to fragment it. These hands suggest that recognition and concealment can occur simultaneously; even when a face is revealed, something else always remains hidden. In works such as The Red Velvet, The Blue Velvet, and Identity Matrix, the velvet metaphor recurs. Velvet is both a tactile luxury and a texture that conceals another reality beneath its surface. In Yıldırım's hands, the canvas transforms not into a mirror but into a multi-layered velvet — one must touch it to see what lies beneath. Yıldırım is among the new generation of artists who build their own audience networks without relying on the gallery system. Her works have entered private collections and have reached an international audience through digital platforms. She continues her work in her studio in Mersin.
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