Dirimart

Çiğdem Aky’s (b. 1989, Munich) painting can be explained in two sentences: she applies paint – and reacts to it. She is mainly interested in how colors interact with each other. Each of her paintings basically consists of three building blocks: depth, structure and the color tone. With these three building blocks, the artist aims to create color spaces on the canvas. Each color space has its own, very special character: its own depth and its own feeling that it conveys. When combining the colors into a color space, her aim is to ensure that the picture as a whole reaches its greatest possible depth, into which the viewer is drawn and which captivates them.

Founded by Hazer Özil in 2002 in Istanbul’s Nişantaşı district, Dirimart has been instrumental in strengthening Istanbul’s role in the global art world by cultivating long-lasting relationships with prominent international artists. It has successfully introduced internationally acclaimed artists, including Thomas Bayrle, Hermann Nitsch, Shirin Neshat, Bernard Frize, Julian Rosefeldt, Candida Höfer, Franz Ackermann, Peter Zimmermann, Sarah Morris, and Ghada Amer among others to the Turkish art scene. Dirimart is also strongly committed to promoting established and emerging contemporary artists from Turkey internationally, such as Sarkis, Ayşe Erkmen, Hayal Pozantı, Nasan Tur, Güçlü Öztekin, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Özlem Günyol & Mustafa Kunt, and Ebru Uygun as well as Fahrelnissa Zeid, Âbidin Elderoğlu and Yüksel Arslan who were active in the 20th century.