Overview

Mustafa Hulusi mines his hybrid identity – he was born in London to Turkish-Cypriot parents – to create evocative paintings, installations, films, and photographs. By combining diverse artistic styles and both Middle Eastern and Western art historical references, with a nod to pop culture and mass media, Hulusi investigates how different visual ‘languages’ shape our perception. His work often investigates the traditional conflation of abstraction and representation in Islamic art and questions how this combination of styles affects viewer perception. In the 1990s, he established his reputation with ‘guerilla’ poster campaigns, in which he plastered London neighbourhoods with leaflets, posters and original large-scale works.

 

Works
Exhibitions
Biography
Mustafa Hulusi (b. 1971, London, UK), lives and works in London. The artist received his BA in Fine Art and Critical Studies from Goldsmiths College, London and his MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art, London.  He also holds an MA in Critical Theory from Central St. Martin’s School of Art, London. He has exhibited widely in Europe and in United States, and more recently in Asia. Mustafa Hulusi represented the Republic of Cyprus at the 52nd International Art Exhibition of Venice Biennale in 2007. Mustafa Hulusi’s work has been included in exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK; the Saatchi Gallery, London, UK;  Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA; Baibakov Art Projects, Moscow, Russia; the Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Netherlands; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK; MoMA PS1,  New York, USA and KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany.

Selected solo exhibitions include; Bitter Sweat (Online Exhibition), curated by David Thorpe, Berlin, Germany (2021); Cyprus Realism, Pi Artworks London, UK (2019); Negative Ecstasy, Dirimart, Istanbul, Turkey (2016); Recollections of Underdevelopment, Meliksetian Briggs, Los Angeles, USA (2015); Flyposting – A Retrospective of Work by Mustafa Hulusi, curated by Sotiris Kyriacou, The Cass Bank Gallery, London Metropolitan University Whitechapel London, UK (2015); Propagating Ambient, The Page Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2015); The Golden Age, Max Wigram Gallery, London, UK (2013); The Empty Near East, Max Wigram Gallery, London, UK (2011); The Empty Near East, The Page Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2013); Mustafa Hulusi - New Works, Galerist, Istanbul, Turkey (2010); Afyon, Max Wigram Gallery, London, UK (2010); Mustafa Hulusi & Mark Titchner: The Worshippers, Max Wigram Gallery, London (2009); The Ruins, Civic Room (Mustafa Hulusi’s artist run space), London, UK (2009); Mustafa Hulusi: Obliteration and Memory, Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles, USA (2009); Iznik-Kibris-Londra, Galerist, Istanbul, Turkey (2008); Ecstasy, Max Wigram Gallery, London, UK (2008); The Cyprus Pavilion, the 52nd International Art Exhibition of Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy (2007); The Heavenly Garden, A-Foundation, Liverpool, UK (2007); Mustafa Hulusi Too, Rachmaninoff’s, London, UK (2007).

Selected group exhibitions include; Above / Below / Within, Meliksetian Briggs, Los Angeles, USA (2015); On Nature, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, USA (2013); Mapping Cyprus: Crusaders, Traders and Explorers, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium (2012); Terra Mediterranea / In Crisis, The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus (2012); Interchange, curated by Anna Meliksetian, Los Angeles Stock Exchange, Los Angeles, USA (2011); Newspeak: British Art Now, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (2011, 2010); Portugal Arte 10, Lisbon, Grandola, Portimao and Vila Real de Santo Antonio, Portugal (2010); Cyprus in Venice: 40 Years of Participation in the Venice Biennale of Art, curated by Louli Michaelidou and Yiannis Toumazis, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus (2010); High Society: Mind Altering Drugs in History and Culture, Wellcome Trust, London, UK (2010); RANK: Picturing the Social Order 1516-2009, Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK; Natural Wonders: New Art From London, Baibakov Art Projects, Moscow, Russia (2010); Landscapes: Contemporary Aspects of Orientalism, Spring Gardens, London, UK (2008); Imaginary Realities, Max Wigram Gallery Temporary Exhibition Space, London, UK (2008); Beyond Paradise, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam, Netherlands (2008); Abstraction – Extracting from the World, curated by David Thorp, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, UK (2007); the Zabludowicz Collection: When We Build, Let Us Think That We Build Forever, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2007); Yama, The Marmara Pera Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey (2007); Into Me Out of Me, MoMA PS1, New York, USA curated by Klaus Biesenbach, touring to KW Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany and MACRO Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rome, Italy (2006).

Selected private and public collections include; Tate Modern, London, UK; British Council Collection, London, UK; La Caixa Foundation, Barcelona, Spain; the Pinault Collection, Paris, France; the Olbricht Collection, Essen - Berlin, Germany; the Saatchi Collection, London, UK; the Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK and the UBS Bank Art Collection, London, UK and Zurich, Switzerland.
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