Metanoia: Recent works by Yaşam Şaşmazer

Opening: april 2, 6-9pm

A solo exhibition of Turkish artist, Yaşam Şaşmazer

The first US solo exhibition of the works of Yaşam Şaşmazer. Yaşam is a Turkish artist living and working in Berlin. Her work has been shown in Berlin, Dubai, Istanbul, London and Seoul and has been featured in exhibitions at Saatchi Gallery, London; CerModern, Ankara; Gdańska Galeria Miejska, Gdansk; and Galerie Terminus, Munich, among others. Şaşmazer has been also been included in international biennials in China, Italy and Sweden.

Metanoia, coming from the work of psychiatrist Carl Jung, refers to the process of reforming the psyche as a form of self-healing following a psychological breakdown, a process through which transformation and change can occur.

Carl Jung's influences upon the work of Yaşam Şaşmazer express themselves through Şaşmazer's unsettled protagonists, primitive intensity and creeping shadows. The works in this exhibition, from her Metanoia series, grapple, confront and struggle with their shadows and represent an exploration of the human psyche, an attempt to uncover the depths of our inner world, which emerges as concrete, tangible 'figments' that inhabit space and take on lives of their own. The audience is asked to confront "the strangers in us"--the foreign, alienated and repressed that dwell within us and unconsciously inspire anger, shame and fear.