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Serkan Özkaya was born in Istanbul in 1973. He received his master’s degree from Bard College, New York, and a Ph.D. degree from the department of German Language and Literature at Istanbul University, where he also earned his B.A. and M.A. He was an artist-in-residence at the École Régionale des Beaux Arts de Nantes in 2000–2001; Rooseum in Malmo with the IASPIS grant in 2002; Platform Recent Art Center in Istanbul in 2003–2004; and at Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin in 2006. He was also a fellow of the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Özkaya’s works are mainly about appropriation and reproduction; they usually operate outside traditional spaces for art. Before he studied at Bard College and completed a fellowship at the MacDowell Colony, Özkaya learned about Western art and especially modern and contemporary art in his native country mostly through books, many of them with bad reproductions, which he then photocopied, making even worse reproductions.
Özkaya has had many solo exhibitions and has participated in many joint exhibitions in Turkey and abroad. He is the founder of Slide Show Galleries, a chain storefront-space in Copenhagen, Istanbul, and Hudson, NY between 1999 and 2000. In 2002, he occupied the Project room at Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo for six months where he showed two new works and curated solo shows for the artists Kentaro Hiroki and Gregory Fleischer. In 2003-2004, he initiated The Real McCoy video festival with bdv (bureau des vidéos, Paris) in Istanbul, Perpignan, and Malmo. Between 2003 and 2006, Özkaya produced his work “Today Could Be a Day of Historical Importance” in collaboration with three newspapers (Radikal in Turkey, Aftonbladet in Sweden, Freitag in Germany and the New York Times). In 2005, he reproduced a larger than life replica of Michelangelo’s "David" for the 9th International Istanbul Biennial in 2005.
In the course of the last ten years, Özkaya has given talks and taken part in panel discussions, as well as conducted workshops at numerous academic and artistic institutions such as Malmo Art Academy, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, London University Goldsmiths College, Bilkent University, Platform Contemporary Art Center, Dulcinea Art Gallery, BeganeGrond (BAK), Charlottenborg Museum, the University of Gothenburg′s Valand School of Fine Arts, and Helsinki Art Academy. Özkaya′s work has been widely discussed and written about especially in Turkey, in magazines such as Resmi Görüş, art-ist, Varlik and Sanat Dünyamiz as well as internationally in Art in America, Art Asia Pasific, C, Artelier, and Paletten etc. Some recent essays, featuring Özkaya′s work are by Maria Hlavajova, Vasif Kortun, Mika Hannula, Jean-Charles Massera, and Lilly Wei. Özkaya has authored five books; Genius and Creativity in the Arts: Schoenberg, Adorno and Thomas Mann (Istanbul: Pan Publications, 2000), It’s Not What it Looks Like! I can Explain (Istanbul: Baglam Publications, 2003), No, No, It’s not Working, I Can’t Do It (Art-ist Publications, Istanbul: Turkey 2006), The Real McCoy Copies Exhibition Discussions (Istanbul: Baglam Publications, 2006), Have you ever done anything right? "Willoughby Sharp interviews Serkan Özkaya" (Berlin: Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, 2006) and co-edited Charles Esche’s Modest Proposals (Istanbul: Baglam Publications, 2005).
Solo exhibitions:
1997, “Keith Arnatt Bir Sanatçıdır”, BM Çağdaş Sanat Merkezi, Istanbul
1999-2000, SlideShow Galleries, Istanbul, Kopenhag, Hudson and New York
2000, “New Art Museum”, IGSP, Istanbul
2001, “FOURINAROW”, French Cultural Center, Istanbul
2002, “Lives and Works in Utrecht” at BeganeGrond, Utrecht
2003, “Minerva Street”, Galerist, Istanbul
2004, “Loverboy”, MiniGallery, Stockholm (with Matts Leiderstam)
2004, “DEMOCRACY IS FUN?” White Box, New York, (curated by Michele Thurz)
2004, “Placebo effect” Sparwasser HQ, Berlin, (curated by Vasif Kortun)
2005, “Gizli Yuz / Secret Face”, K2 Art Center Izmir
2005, “Urbane Realitäten: Fokus Istanbul”, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin
2005, "Situated self", Helsinki City Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade
2006, “Of the one and the many” Platform Garanti, Istanbul
2006, “When He Came Back to His Senses, the Monster Was Still Waiting in Front of the Cave”, Galerist, Istanbul
2006, “Steiler Konter", Magazin4 - Bregenzer Kunstverein
2006, “Monet: A Retrospective”, Kuenstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin
2006, “Pre-Emptive”, Kunsthalle Bern
2007, “Mon the Bund”, Shanghai & Freemans, New York
2008, "Bring Me the Head Of…", Shanghai, New York, Istanbul, Izmir
2008, "A Sudden Gust of Wind", Boots Contemporary Art Space, St. Louis
2008, “Jagd und Kugelfang”, Galerie Spesshardt & Klein, Berlin
2009, "Dear Sir or Madam", Slag Gallery, New York
Group exhibitions:
“iskorpit”, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe; Haus der Kulturen, Berlin (1998-1999); 7th International Guarene Arte, Torino (2000); “Early spring”, Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Kopenhagen (2000); “Izleyenin itirafları”, Dulcinea, Istanbul; "Bugünkü Program, Gelecek Program", Yapı Kredi, Istanbul (2000); Arbetsrum, Rooseunı, Malmö, Yeniden Bak, Proje4L, Istanbul (2001); “Short Stories” at Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan (2001); “Fundamentalisms in the New TN Probe", Tokyo (2001); “Blanches Neiges”, Centre National de la Photographie, Paris (2001); “Fundamentalisms of the New Order Kunsthal Charlottenborg”, Copenhagen (2002); “public.exe”, Exit Art, New York (curated by Michele Thurz) (2002); Steiler Konter, Bregenzer Kunstverein (curated by Peter Lang) (2003); Pre Emptive, Kunsthalle Bern (curated by Philippe Pirotte) (2003); Modern and Beyond Santral Istanbul (curated by Fulya Erdemci) (2003); 7th International Santiago de Chile New Media Biennial (2003); Tirana Biennale 2 (2003); “ORTung 03” Galerie5020, Salzburg (2004); “Poetics of Proximity” Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange (2004); “Side-Effects”, Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art (curated by WHW) (2004); “Poetics of Proximity” Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, LA (2004); 9th International Istanbul Biennial (curated by Charles Esche and Vasif Kortun) (2005); "Situated Self", City Museum Helsinki & Belgrade Museum of Contemporary Art (curated by Mika Hannula and Branislav Dimitrijevic) (2005); Art Competition, Madrid Abierto Public Space (2006); “PRE-EMPTIVE” Kunsthalle Bern (2006); "SHIFTscale – Extended Field of Contemporary Sculpture", Tallinn Museum of Modern Art (curated by Hanno Soans, Mika Hannula) (2006); Altered, Stitched & Gathered P.S.1 MoMA, Long Island (2007); PERFORMA07, New York (curated by Roselee Goldberg) (2007); "A Series of Coincidences" Cabinet, New York, (curated by Regine Basha) (2009).
Reference: wikipedia.org; iksv.org; sanalmuze.org; images.google.com.tr; nytimes.com; sparwasserhq.de; slaggallery.com |
