Ekrem Yalcindag: About Color, Nature, Ornaments, and other Things

Living in Istanbul, Vienna, and Frankfurt am Main, Yalcindag (*1964 in Goelbasi) is one of the most important artists working today. Having spent his childhood in Turkey, he then developed his visual language as a student of Hermann Nitsch and Thomas Bayrle in Frankfurt am Main nearly twenty years ago. His meticulous, impasto technique executed with an extremely fine paint brush demands an enormous amount of time. It results in relief-like paintings constructed from hundreds of layers. That Yalcindag’s application of paint recalls the American Color Field painters should be of no surprise if one keeps in mind his intense engagement with Minimal Art. This publication offers the first analysis of the artist’s original practice and visual language, while also providing an important contribution to the study of the reception of non-European ornamental traditions within contemporary art.Exhibition: Art and Cultural Foundation Opelvillen Russelsheim 7.9.-6.11.2016