| Art Profile |
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Gizem Saka was born in Istanbul in 1978. She started drawing in pencil and charcoal, as well as building small sculptures in clay. She moved to United States at the age of 21 to pursue a graduate education in economics. From that age, she started to paint in oils at Cornell University’s Fine Arts Department, and from that point she has been self-taught. Gizem Saka is trying to express her surroundings with the bold use of color while taking the liberty to distort shapes and add decorative elements and simplified bodies and faces. Every one of her paintings tells a story, while also experimenting in the background. In terms of subject matter, she makes use of her background, which is her only source of storytelling, and combines those stories with her imagination to create original works that blend tradition and modernity.
Exhibitions: 1998: Gallery Bahariye, Istanbul, Turkey (group exhibit), (August). 2005: Gallery Gora, Montreal, Canada, (August); Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois (October). 2006: Lance Armstrong Foundation Fundraising Gala, Austin, Texas (group exhibit), (May); Bella Arte Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, (December). 2007: New York Art Expo, SOLO Pavilion, New York City, New York, (March). Work also had shown at the following galleries (between 2006 and 2008) Benjamin Arts Gallery, Hagerstown, Maryland, Artpic, Los Angeles, California, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Chez-Zee Gallery, Austin, Texas. 2008 Forthcoming: New York Art Expo, SOLO Pavilion, New York City, New York, (February).
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