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Ufuk Ali Gueray

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Market

Market

2013, oil on canvas, 28" x 33"

Market

Market

2014, oil on canvas, series of four ovals, 14" x 11" each

Market (detail)

Market (detail)

Market

Market

2013, oil on canvas, 22" x 30"

Market (detail)

Market (detail)

Market

Market

2013, oil on canvas, 13.5" x 11.5"

Action Frieze

Action Frieze

2013, oil on canvas, quadriptych, 14" x 66" 

Parts

Parts

2015, oil on canvas, series of five paintings, 12" x 9" each

Parts (detail)

Parts (detail)

Parts (detail)

Parts (detail)

Parts (detail)

Parts (detail)

Parts (detail)

Parts (detail)

Alternate Endings

Alternate Endings

2013, oil on canvas, 24" x 36"

Market

Market

2013, oil on canvas, 18" x 14.5"

Alternate Endings (detail)

Alternate Endings (detail)

Untitled

Untitled

2013, oil on canvas, series of four paintings, 11" x 14" each

Market (2013 - ongoing)

Market (2013 - ongoing)

Replica sausage slice, 2.75" diam.

Market is an ongoing performative project that consists of leaving replica sausage slices in corners of various museums and public galleries.

Compositional Strategies

Compositional Strategies

2013, oil on canvas, triptych, 14" x 11" each

Not Good/Good

Not Good/Good

2014, oil on canvas, diptych, 43" x 49" each

 

A few years ago, I came across an old 1950’s painting and drawing manual that included various diagrammatic explanations of “good” and “bad” compositional strategies. It is interesting to reflect upon the idea of rules in art, and I discovered that by the parameters of this particular book, pretty much all my paintings were “bad.” In this particular piece, a diptych titled “Not Good / Good,” one of these diagrams is presented alongside a gestural abstraction executed in the “meat” colours of my sausage paintings. Both compositions are centred, and therefore, they are boring. It seems interesting to me to make paintings that interrogate their own boringness.  In these works, I wanted to emphasize both that we are always following some kind of rule when we make art, even if those are rules of our own devising.  At the same time, the act of following a rule is not always so simple, and perhaps obedience and disobedience can both be workable strategies, even if employed simultaneously.

Not Good/Good (detail)

Not Good/Good (detail)

Combo

Combo

2014, ostrich egg shells, oil paint on wooden plinth, handles, wheels, dimensions variable
 

Combo (detail)

Combo (detail)

Combo

Combo

This work is a combination of painting and sculpture, sausage and eggs; it has handles and wheels, which in some ways makes it a very practical piece because I can wheel it around easily. It is, however, also useless. I have grown accustomed to having it as a roommate in my Winnipeg studio, and have been wheeling it from one corner of my space to the other since I made it.

 

Plastic Rhymes, installation view (2017)

Plastic Rhymes, installation view (2017)

A group exhibition curated by Ali King at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum

Market

Market

2014, oil and acrylic on canvas, 68" x 54"

Market

Market

2014, oil and acrylic on canvas, 68" x 54"

Market

Market

2014, oil and acrylic on canvas, 68" x 54"

Market

Market

2014, oil and acrylic on canvas, 68" x 54"