It is Sefer Memişoğlu’s first solo show at Galeri Nev. The artist, who lives and works in Amsterdam, is finally completing his series "The Eye's Ray" in Ankara. This series that was first exhibited at Bradwolff Projects in 2017 and at Depo Istanbul with the support of SAHA the following year, expanded each time with works from a different media that Memişoğlu masters. Now containing drawings, sculptures and video installations, the final version of "The Eye's Ray" will be on view at Galeri Nev for a month, starting from April 7 and the artist will travel from the Netherlands, with the contributions of the Dutch Embassy, in order to accompany the installation and opening of the exhibition.

The title of the exhibition is derived from the essay of the same name by Italo Calvino; in “The Eye’s Ray” the Italian writer describes the eye as the key of the human brain and therefore of human thinking and acting. Calvino goes back to the origin of scientific thinking about the eye, which is remarkably inventive. Early scientists claimed that the act of seeing was performed by luminous arrows coming from the brain; they described light as a spiritual force that actively illuminated the outside world. Using this interpretation as his starting point, the painter's gaze on a blank sheet of paper and his hand’s work on it reflecting what is in his mind, became Sefer Memişoğlu’s metaphors. 

In addition to Calvino, “The Eye's Ray", where the connection between the eye and the hand forms the backbone of the exhibition, constructs its story with inspirations from the history and technique of cinema, as well as Greek mythology and French philosophy. This unsettling story is knitted around mysterious objects whose relationships with each other and with the whole story remain unknown, versus quite well-known characters such as Guy Debord or François Holland whose portraits we see on the walls. Thanks to Sefer Memişoğlu's unique technique of drawing, a pair of gloves, a suspender or a soap dish, all transforming into highly poetic beings within the integrity of the exhibition, also invites us to reflect on light and darkness. When the exhibition is read through such dualities as light and shadow, positive and negative, woman and man, the work "Love and Hate", which will be exhibited for the first time at Galeri Nev, draws most of the attention. Referring to the grueling work of the artist's -almost employed- hand on paper, not only with the patterns he calls "seismic", but also with his hyperrealist sculptures, Memişoğlu exposes the softness of human skin to Medusa's petrifying gaze. Aiming at all aesthetic, political and psychological stimuli, the works invite, perhaps even compel the viewers to face the indifference and other intolerable elements of life, at the expense of turning into stone.

Born in 1977, Sefer Memişoğlu worked in Amsterdam with a Rijksacademie scholarship between 2006-2008 and in Milan with a Viafarini scholarship in 2009.  His works have been seen in Whitechapel Gallery in 2012, Maison des Arts Georges Pompidou in 2010, and previously in several art capitals including New York, Basel, Berlin, Venice, Seoul, Sofia and Rotterdam. The work of Memişoğlu was previously seen in Turkey, at Depo Istanbul, Galeri Non, Galerist, and in Project 4L within the framework of the 9th Istanbul Biennial.