KEMAL SEYHAN

During the painting process Seyhan restricts himself with a series of rules:He starts with black paint and a horizontally positioned canvas. He then meticulously applies the paint in straight verticalor horizontal bars.A painterly stratum is created on each canvas by kilograms of paint applied via thousands of spatula touches. The artist does not use his paint to define as pace or create a3D illusion, insteadthe canvasbecomesan excelled surface that excludes everything other than its texture and feelfrom the viewer’sattention.

Since 2009,Seyhan has also used the samerestrictive creative process to create works-on-paper.Herethe canvas is replaced with paper and the paint is replaced with graphite as his means of expression.Thousands of graphite marks cover the papervertically,horizontally anddiagonally to createarigid,metallicreliefacross the paper’ssurface.The graphite is a new tool, but the central concept remains the same. Both mediums builda strong communication with light, reflecting the colours of their environment and presenting a different chromatic scale depending on the viewpoint.The working/paintingprocess is an inquiry session for Seyhan. He questions what he is performing as an artist/painter. The artist believes in the efficiency of repetitive acts; the repeating act of painting and moves of the body. With this, he imitates the nature in away.Just like the layers of earthpiling upon top of each other, he lets his experience,time and energy accumulate on hispictureplane as the founding elements.