Nurettin Erkan/About

NEWS

"The journey of Kurdistan is likened to Dante's Boat trying to swim in the river of the world, depicting gloom and everyday/political torment with sharp details. The darkness that dominates Erkan's paintings initially dazzles the eye, but soon, as the pupil expands, it sheds light on the details."

- From the newspaper article 'Kurdistan: A Gloomy River'

Özgür SERHAT

Writer
Geremol, October 4, 2010, Istanbul

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"In Nurettin Erkan's recent works, you can see the traces of hope amidst the ruins of Diyarbakır Sur, the resilience of Kurdish women, and the scars of marginalization. We talked with Erkan about his paintings, which he refers to as a form of resistance, childhood memories, the pains of the politicization of Kurdish art, and the much-debated themes of pornographic imagery and politics."

- From the newspaper article 'We Did Not Disappear, Because Our Memory Resists!'

Jinda ZEKİOĞLU

Journalist
Newspaper Duvar, March 24, 2020, Istanbul

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"The struggle itself epitomizes the human being and her life. A human being who does not resist against power and its oppressions cannot be defined and might be considered as a human without being. Our selfis either surrounded or in resistance.
I think that consciousness of a self is the beginning of resistance, and reflects itself on the body. As I mentioned before, the body is the field of resistance, and every kind of struggle to build justice, equality, and freedom finds its substance in the body."

- From the newspaper article 'My Paintings are Paintings of Resistance'

Interview: Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Journalist
May 16, 2018, US

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"It is not the surface beauty of pleasure and happiness, but a deeper beauty we cannot easily name. Perhaps it is a terrible beauty (as the Irish poet W. B. Yeats called it), a passing glimpse of courage and endurance, of resistance and survival."

- From the newspaper article'Of Bodies and Time and Melancholy'

Prof. Vinay Dharwadker

Writer, poet, translator, academician
University of Wisconsin–Madison, December 26, 2013, US

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"Two Opposing Visual Languages: In Botero, we see figures inflated like balloons, infused with a sense of lightness, while in Erkan, the figures are full and heavy like lead. What they share is their abundance of questions, refusing to settle in the spaces you want them to occupy. Botero's figures inevitably evoke concepts like 'fat' and 'caricature,' prompting reflection. How do these images succeed in not being caricatures? Or do they? To what extent do they succeed?'"

- From the newspaper article 'Two Opposing Visual Languages'

Necmiye ALPAY

Writer, Linguist, Translator
Radikal, July 15, 2010, Istanbul

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"In his series of paintings titled "Body and Stone," Nurettin Erkan emphasizes contrasts such as internal-external, existence-non existence and impermanence-permanence as well as playing with the viewer's perception of reality by creating a feeling of timelessness, emptying the objects and bodies and intertwining a new web of meanings over their new compositions."

- From the newspaper article 'Body and Stone in Erkan's Paintings'

Lütfiye BOZDAĞ

Writer, art critic, academician
Newspaper İlk Hber, Adana, January 16, 2008

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"I am standing in front of Erkan’s paintings, which are filled with fiery tones. The artist first draws a central figure representing power, brings it to life through painting, and then adds other figures around it. Before you know it, the canvas is filled with figures. Everywhere is bathed in the rusty colors of nature, blending with the smoke and sparks of fire... flowing from heat to cold, from cold to heat, with lines thickening and thinning, patches growing and shrinking, and figures acquiring new meanings, images turning into poetry."

- From the newspaper article 'Things I Watched'

Author: M. Babacanoglu

Journalist
Newspaper İlk Hber, Adana, January 16, 2008

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"The artist finds a constant opportunity for experimentation in a free space, which is also the different atmosphere created in the paintings. This is an atmosphere that, while seeming to oppose the truth, at times wants to be a mirror of the truth, and at the same time, rejects the truth, seeks another place, and presents this search as the purpose of existence."

- From the newspaper article 'Figures Questioning Existence'

Nida Nevra Savcilioglu

Art critic, editor, dramaturge
Sanat Cevresi, 2003, Istanbul

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"In my opinion what confronts us here is a pictorial language that is guided by a desire to discover the basic structure that lies at the root of an infinite and invariable knowledge of the body."

- From the catalogue article 'THE PROCESS OF BEING AND ANONYMIZATION'

Levent Calıkoglu

Art critic, curator,Istanbul Modern director
Angel in the Stage solo show catalogue writer, 2003

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The catalog for Nurettin Erkan's solo show YABANCI features contributions from three writers. Cem Mumcu contributed a poem, adding a poetic touch to the catalog. Özlem Hemiş Öztürk wrote an extensive essay that spans the entire catalog, providing a deep and comprehensive analysis of Erkan's work. Finally, at the end of the catalog, Nida Nevra Savcılıoğlu presents an interview with Erkan, offering insights into his artistic process and perspective.

- From the STRANGER catalogue articles 'STRANGER'

Authors: Cem MUMCU
Özlem H. ÖZTÜRK
Nida N. SAVCILIOĞLU

DECEMBER 11, 2002

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" Nurettin Erkan, a young artist who graduated from the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Mimar Sinan University, opened his second solo exhibition at the Press Museum in Çemberlitaş.

- From the newspaper article 'Nurettin Erkan's Works at the Press Museum'

Nurettin ERKAN

The Artist's Statement About the Exhibition
Cumhuriyet newspaper, İstanbul, 1992

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