Lot 193 - Serpil Mavi Üstün - Nothin' scares me anymore

Oil on paper
2024
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Art on a Postcard

About
Serpil Mavi Ustun (b.1979 Turkey) lives and works in London since 2016. She earned her degree from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul, where she also dedicated two years to archaic mosaics, fresco and sgraffito workshops.

“Imagine some of these picturesque scenarios which would come true in daily life as; walking through the city, looking at your cell phone screen, sipping your coffee, blowing out the candles of your birthday cake, receiving flowers etc. Usual contexts thus and so are worthy to be the subject of Mavi Ustun’s painting.

The artist dealing with loneliness of the individual of the present-day; makes us confront with the personal stories of her fragile, perturbed, melancholic, heroes and heroines who refer to solitude. Some of these moments that Serpil dwells on, there are some personal eccentricities, which appear in a passive-aggressive way. Even sometimes the personas of her painting make us think that they are taking a kind of pleasure to procreate drama. They can seem indifferent in a case or atmosphere where they are supposed to take pleasure. In a moment that seems ideal, beautiful or happy they can sabotage it. These heroes, who ruin their own pastel world, reflect the conflicts that we deal with, in our daily routine.

The matter that the artist focuses on her painting is not storytelling; but by focusing on the individual in a fragment from life to reflect their trouble. Mavi Ustun thinks that in the source of this fact resides the agony of the individual who has been caught in a trap of existence and surrounded with the means of the social system. Personages of her paintings symbolize the person who fights back and reacts to this circumstance. While transforming the impressions, fantasies, evocations and images; into a scene of a fleeting moment, she leaves the previous and the future scene to the imagination of the viewer.”

Education
2004-2008
Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey

Solo Exhibitions
2023
No Added Sugar, Long Story Short, NYC

2022
Caramel Macchiato, C.A.M. Gallery, Istanbul

2019
Everything Is Ok, One Paved Court, London

2018
Royal Arts Prize Runner-up exhibition, Royal Opera Arcade Gallery, London

Group Exhibitions
2024
Quiet Storm, Long Story Short Paris
Beginning of Memory, Galeri Nev, Istanbul
A Memory Surfaces, Galeri Nev, Ankara

2023
A New Sensation, Marguo Gallery, Paris
Universe 25, Gillian Jason Gallery, London
Skin Deep, Studio West, London
Fetish, MAMA - London
Even a Cat Can Look at the Queen, Mrs Gallery, New York
Dialogue, The Artist Room Gallery – London

2022
Another Round, Galeri Nev & Kendi Collection, Istanbul
Mothflower, "Character", London
Contemporary Istanbul -Bloom, C.A.M Gallery, Istanbul

2021
Recto-Verso, C.A.M. Gallery, Istanbul
Let it Be, C.A.M. Gallery, Istanbul
Life, C.A.M. Gallery, Istanbul
Subsidiary Projects – ROOMS, London
Congruence - I Like Your Work Juried Exhibition, London

2019
Herstory, C.A.M. Gallery, Istanbul
Step Istanbul ‘19, C.A.M. Gallery, Istanbul

2018
Visually Literate2, Manier Gallery, London
KAOS Kingston Artists Open Studios, London
The Other Art Fair Bristol by Saatchi Art, London
The Other Art Fair London
Not 30 %, curated by Kate Bryan, Saatchi Art, London
99 Kare, Art On, Istanbul

Awards
Royal Arts Prize IV. Edition (Second place award)

Gallery Representation
Galeri Nev, Ankara, Turkey