MOTH

It is with great pride, we can announce “MOTH”, Evren Tekinoktay’s (b. 1972) new solo exhibition with the gallery.

The exhibition is called MOTH. In English, ‘moth’ has two, almost contrasting, meanings – a night moth and a regular moth. A night moth is mysterious and alluring in its gloomy beauty. And moths, well, they have a knack for making holes in our clothes. Or more precisely, their larvae make the holes. But with moths, just like in life, reality is a bit more nuanced than that. Because the larvae that make silk also belong to the regular moth family. Life is full of surprises, isn’t it? Especially when it comes to things that are beautiful; they’re rarely straightforward, or at the very least, they’re nuanced.

‘Pretty’ is a subjective and temporary thing. Prettyness is fleeting. As such, beauty is probably something else.

Evren Tekinoktay works with beauty like no one else, because Evren is sensitive to beauty. She has always felt and followed the beautiful, even when it wasn’t popular.

It doesn’t have to be so complicated. In art criticism, it is as if they don’t talk about beauty anymore. It’s like it’s démodé – not modern. But isn’t beauty something that’s eternal?

In MOTH, Evren draws concretely from childhood memories. She once discovered a box with both pupae and live silkworms at her grandmother’s place. Here she saw the whole idea of beauty in life unfold. The exhibition combines art and memories from the magic of childhood, explores the delicate encounters between insects and the subtle refinement of silk. It’s both captivating, but also a little bit eerie.

These artworks weave together memories of the past and the fragile beauty of the night, creating a visual narrative that invites the viewer to reflect on life and its fragile and capricious beauty.

It’s not quite as subjective after all.