Mesut Karakış

Mesut Karakış was born in Sakarya, Turkey in 1976. He graduated from Marmara University Faculty of Fine Arts, Hüsamettin Koçan Workshop, Department of Painting. He has participated in various group exhibitions since he was a student. Working as the assistant of Prof. Tayfun Erdoğmuş between 2000-2015, the artist opened his first solo exhibition "A Glimpse into the Void" in 2019, his second solo exhibition "Serial Beauty" in 2020, and the latest one named “Layers and Grooves” at the end of 2021 in Galeri 77. He currently works and resides in Istanbul.

For formalist painters like Mesut Karakış, shapes and colors are the only artistic elements that matter. Focusing on the intrinsic structure of painting itself, the work’s composition aims for a maximal aesthetic impact and retinal effect. Mesut Karakış counts among these innovative artists that push abstract painting beyond its classic limits for opening-up new ways of production and reception.

Mesut Karakış’ sophisticated and individual painting technique shifts permanently between construction and destruction. In his paintings, the final image that appears on the foreground is not painted with a brush. The artist uses a chemical reaction between water and acrylic paint for disengaging and dissolving certain parts of the color from the ground. Every painting begins with surfaces being treated one layer at a time as part of a personal composition. During this process, each acrylic color layer which are themselves the product of different densities of paint reapplied according to composition and color palette, is redefined by interacting with both the previous and the next layers. After sheeting of the surface is finished, individual layers are thinned and reduced by being sandpapered and patinated according to the plan of each composition. Through this process of reduction, the colors and textures in the lower layers become evident and come to surface, revealing a whole new look and impression. The depth and the textural value of the work when seen from a distance, together with the flat, smooth surface of the canvas while looked closed enough to touch, serve to create an effect of illusion on the audience.