Newsletters
Black Light Gallery, a newly opened contemporary art space in the Karakoy district of Istanbul, has stepped onto Türkiye’s art scene with its first exhibition, "Gelenek: In Progress," which has now been opened to the public.
Positioned as an entry point into ongoing debates around tradition and contemporaneity, the exhibition sets out to rethink how traditional art forms can be read within today’s artistic landscape.
According to a statement released by the gallery, the exhibition is curated by Hale Albayrak and focuses on works produced with traditional techniques while deliberately placing them within a contemporary art context.
Rather than treating tradition as a fixed or completed concept, the show frames it as something that keeps evolving in response to historical, cultural, and social conditions. In doing so, it aims to open up a space for reflection on how inherited practices can take on new meanings when they are taken up by current generations of artists.
The exhibition brings together works by 16 artists: Zeynep Akman, Dilara Altinkepce Arslan, Fatmanur Arslan, Azra Celik, Feyza Coban, Cagri Dizdar, Isra Dogan, Gulbahar Gumusten Celik, Sule Guzeller, Mehmet Iscan, Bengisu Kaya, Damla Mogulkoc, Seda Ozdemir, Selcuk Pol, Behice Ucar, and Merve Zeybek.
Their works collectively question the idea of a “pure” or fully formed tradition, instead taking it up as a dynamic practice that keeps being reshaped through lived experience and contemporary concerns.
Curator Hale Albayrak, whose views were shared in the gallery’s statement, underlined that the main motivation behind the exhibition was to make visible the strong potential of traditional arts to express today’s contradictions, ruptures, and transformations.
She emphasized that tradition, as presented in the exhibition, is meant to resonate with the issues of the present day and to be perceived not as something static, but as a living and changing field of expression.
Gallery founder Aslinur Kara also reflected on how the exhibition has been received by visitors so far. She noted that the feedback suggests the exhibition has achieved its core aim, as many visitors have said that their understanding of the concept of tradition has shifted and that they have gained a new perspective on traditional arts.
Kara added that she expects this intellectual and productive field to keep expanding in the coming years, particularly through the contributions of young artists and new generations studying traditional arts. The initial reactions, she said, indicate that this expectation has already found a response among audiences.
"Gelenek: In Progress" can be visited until Feb. 28. The gallery is open from Tuesday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Set as preferred source
3 min read
