Its a total obsession, she says.
I just marbled every single thing I could get a hold of.
Her paintings, usually so carefully rendered, took on a new spontaneity.
Hayv Kahraman,Love Me Love Me Not(2023). Oil and acrylic on linen, 80" x 100". Courtesy of the Artist, Pilar Corrias, London, Jack Shainman Gallery, NY, Vielmetter Los Angeles and The Third Line, Dubai.
The artist withLook me in the eyes no 7(2023) at ICA SF.
The women are agents of rebellion, standing their ground amid swirling marbled seas.
They seem hungry, even angry, desirous of whats theirs for the taking.
The artist withLook me in the eyes no 7(2023) at ICA SF.
Call them women on the verge of getting what they want.
The central figure slurps one into her mouth, a faint trickle of paint running down her chin.
Eyeris(2023).
Eyeris(2023). Oil and acrylic on linen, 80" x 115". Courtesy of the Artist, Pilar Corrias, London, Jack Shainman Gallery, NY, Vielmetter Los Angeles and The Third Line, Dubai.
Oil and acrylic on linen, 80" x 115".
Jarringly, across the exhibition, the womens own milky white eyes have no irises.
Only the disembodied eyes do.
Lip plants(2023). Oil and acrylic on linen, 80" x 115". Courtesy of the Artist, Pilar Corrias, London, Jack Shainman Gallery, NY, Vielmetter Los Angeles and The Third Line, Dubai.
Kahraman says she found herself painting eyes this way for months without knowing why.
And then it just clicked, she says.
She realized that was what she was doing with the eyes.
Foreground:Brick palm 1,Brick palm 2,Brick palm 3. Far right:Weedwreath. All 2023. Courtesy Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco.
Im removing the irises as a way of saying, No, you dont get to scan me.
You dont get to see inside me.
Kahraman plays with this idea of personhood in the way she layers her paintings as well.
This blurring of back- and foreground is intentional.
Lip plants(2023).
Oil and acrylic on linen, 80" x 115".
Kahraman is an artist who researches her interests deeply.
Foreground:Brick palm 1,Brick palm 2,Brick palm 3.
Far right:Weedwreath.
Courtesy Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco.
Sizar recorded this tape as an appeal.
The basis for the denial was that my mom couldnt prove that she was who she was.
She was a 49-year-old woman at the time.
Imagine being told, Well, we dont believe who you are.
That was a massive trigger for her, says Kahraman.
And what you hear is one womans undeniable fear of being erased.
And my work, and my life, tends to be very controlled.
Its a form, for me, of safety.
But it becomes excessive.
Thats part of what marbling has taught me, she continues.
To not have to know everything.
Because there is no way to control the marbled surface…. You lift the canvas, and its gorgeous.
Sometimes its not perfect, but it allows you to be okay with that.
Ive been pushing for this for a long time.
This marbling, it allowed me to get there.
I mean, Im not there, youre never there, but Im closer.
