Overview
Gülay Semercioglu is a Turkish artist working from her studio in Istanbul, Turkey. She trained as a painter and was awarded Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Mimar Sinan University in 1994. 
Born 1968, Gulay Semercioglu’s  work creates fields of kinetic impact: altering lines of coloured, silver and copper wire through exposure to light - a signature material and method that she has employed for more than 30 years. Blending the complexity of her craftsmanship with her artistry, she toes the line between physical, personal, and socio-political oppositions created through optical illusions.

 

Traditional Anatolian motifs are singled out and elevated across the artist’s practice, and these symbols of family unity, happiness, health, fertility and protection, offer clues and insight, telling the story of Anatolian family life. More recently, İznik tiles and Anatolian-Seljuk motifs, geometric forms and cultural symbols, appear prominently in her works - highlighted in her unique wire-woven kilims.

Works
Exhibitions
Biography
Gulay Semercioglu, b.1968, Istanbul, lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey 
Major exhibitions include; Women Defining Women, LACMA, USA (2023), More than a Memory (solo), Pi Artworks Istanbul (2022); EVERYWHERE WAS NOWHERE AND NOWHERE EVERYWHERE (group), curated by Mustafa Hulusi, Pi Artworks London, UK (2022); Desire to Survive, Pi Artworks, İstanbul, Turkey (2019). Artist In Their Time, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey The Power of Form, Istanbul, Turkey (2016); The Woman on the Wire (solo), Pi Artworks London, UK (2015); Sublime Porte: An Exhibition of Contemporary Turkish Art, Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery in New York, USA (2013); Variations on Line (solo), Leila Heller Gallery, New York, USA (2012); Dream and Reality, Istanbul Modern, Turkey, (2011); Abbara Kadabra, Mardin Biennial, Turkey (2010); and Istanbul Next Wave, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Germany (2009). Major collections holding her work include; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Centene Centre for Arts and Education, Missouri, USA; Quinn Collection, Los Angeles, USA; Cocca Art and Design Institute, Coimbatore, India; RAK Art Foundation Collection, Riffa, Kingdom of Bahrain; The Farjam Foundation, Dubai, UAE; Sheika Fatima Suroor, Abu Dhabi, UAE; Wheelock Collection, Hong Kong; Michael and Saniza Collection, Hong Kong; Him Collection, Singapore; Istanbul Modern, Turkey; and the Papko Art Collection, Istanbul, Turkey.
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