Obsidian
Devin Oktar Yalkin
04.10 - 12.11.2022
Devin Oktar Yalkın’s first solo exhibition in Turkey; Obsidian includes a carefully curated group of works selected from the artist’s "Nemesis" and "Alone Together" series which have been years in the making. Yalkın’s black and white photographs where minimal subjects are shown in a striking way with high contrast, invite the viewer on a mysterious journey of their own imaginations.
"Often, the work suggests the middle of the night, with its silence and stealth, and our presence as viewers sharing this nocturnal secrecy. Of the portraits, many of them commissioned for august publications and of public figures: actors, authors, statesmen, pop stars, they however stubbornly resist the bravado of celebrity culture and the theater of achievement. Instead, they are somber, pensive, introspective. The photographs are a vignette of the individual's insularity, their passage into solitude."
Stephen Frailey
A selection of editorial works will be showcased apart from the exhibition, giving the audience in Turkey a chance to get to know the artist more intimately.
"Obsidian is comprised of two bodies of work that I finally decided to combine after a few years of keeping them separate. As far as the selection of imagery, I wanted to combine intimate familial work with my diaristic in order to push conversation between the photographs. It was important for me to create a sense of space, a world that the viewer can walk into and understand my sensibilities and how I interact with what’s around me."
Devin Oktar Yalkın
About Devin Oktar Yalkın (1981)
Born and raised in New York City in 1981, Devin Oktar Yalkin graduated from the School of Visual Arts Photography Department in 2010. The first monograph of Yalkin, who has worked with many magazines such as the New York Times, Time, Vice, and Rolling Stone "I'll See You Tomorrow Until I Can't", was published by Sun Editions in 2016. Yalkin's black-and-white photographs have been featured in various group exhibitions and fairs in the USA, Turkey, Germany, the Netherlands, France, and many other countries. After participating in the “Close Range” exhibition opened at Istanbul Modern in 2013, the artist's works included in this exhibition were also included in the permanent collection of the museum. After his first solo exhibition in Turkey, which was opened at the Evin Art Gallery in 2022, the gallery began to represent Yalkin in Turkey. Yalkin lives in Los Angeles and continues her practices.