Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış / Velvet Stare, Solo Exhibition, Exhibition view, 11 September 2025 - 12 April 2026, Curator: Emre Baykal, Arter, İstanbul. Photo by Kayhan Kaygusuz

nilbar güreş

kadife bakış / velvet stare

BY MÜMTAZ SAĞLAM

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Nilbar Güreş, through the narratIve and experImental stylIstIc approach that characterIses Kadife Bakış / VELVET STARE, employs metaphorIcal language and technIques of exaggeration; In doIng so, she actually establIshes a transIent and precarIous rhythm that contrasts wIth her sensItIve and realIstIc perspectIve. It seems to be Immersed In a softenIng and yIeldIng, remInIscent of dream sequences related to sexualIty, sImultaneously rooted In collective memory, and recognIsed as products of our understandIng of IdentIty and belongIng. And precIsely at thIs moment, despIte the constructed plane of uncertaInty and abstractIon, It surrenders Itself to an emotIonal flow on a deepenIng ground…

Nilbar Güreş, MAYZU: Hindistancevizi ve Muz Veren Ağaç / MAYZU: The Tree That Bears Coconuts and Bananas 2022, Mixed Media, 400 x 640 x 200 cm. Photo by Kayhan Kaygusuz. (https://www.arter.org.tr/sergi/nilbar-gures-kadife-bakis/6461#gallery-2)

a narrative and experimental formalization

Nilbar Güreş possesses an approach that shakes contemporary social life with radical discourses and resists hegemonic gazes. In a purified micro-cosmos established through a simplified language, the scenes she shapes within the interval of recollection and memory are replete with stories of rupture and loss regarding a vanished life.

Güreş operates on a poignant and relational ground, centered on a debate of belonging and an identity perception determined by the phenomenon of migration. She narrates the burning reality of the process of disappearance and existence. She presents us with a highly subjective world, diversified by gestures and reactions that develop between a transgressive yet vulnerable sensitivity. Consequently, she creates a crowded environment evocative of ethnic and ecological images. Through an increasingly complex strategy of representation, she enters a creative continuity that progresses with a mythical and ambiguous principle of formalization, presenting an overarching integrity.

For this reason, the exhibitions of Güreş can be read as a single artwork or arrangement. Elements such as an imagination that transforms into a fragmented logic of staging, object production based on symbolization, and a peculiar, playful formalization already establish this integrity of language and image with ease. One of the finest examples of this situation is the artist’s recent solo exhibition titled Velvet Stare (2025–2026).

a depiction implied by a layered and hybrid integrity

As clearly observed in Velvet Stare, the imagery of Güreş grows peculiar through a surrealist characterization, becoming an event of action-process that mutates in an emotional context. In this regard, the 2025 work Monstera is the product of a strange yet non-threatening symbolistic meticulousness; an action that is ambiguous and hybridizing, viewed through a humorous lens. Indeed, with the fluid formality achieved here through the mediation of the wounded body typology, she creates a conceptual space for herself that appears progressively extraordinary and queer. Likewise, in the 2025 work Medusa, a symbolic and cautionary composition emerges, targeting sexist discourse and narratives of harassment implied through mythological connections. Multiple interpretations that fluctuate between sexuality and humor, proliferating upon the phallic body of the palm tree, are utilized here as a fragile form of balance and solidarity.

It appears that Nilbar Güreş complements, layers, and enriches her existing vision of the world predominantly with colorful pieces of fabric and textile elements. This choice, referencing material sensitivity, simultaneously enables a representation of mysticism that occurs within the context of ethnographic connections and the continuity of symbols. There is a magnificent integrity formed by the coexistence of colorful clothing items, knits, quilt-like fluffy patterns, and other ready-made textile elements; just as seen in the tree depiction titled Mayzu. This paradox of fragmented-waste material is virtually a depiction implied by a layered and hybrid integrity, where each element also evokes its own functional history and culture.

Through the narrative and experimental approach to formalization that characterizes Velvet Stare, Nilbar Güreş operates with metaphorical language and techniques of exaggeration; she maintains a temporary and precarious rhythm that contradicts her sensitive and realistic gaze. She undergoes a softening and expanding, recognized as the products of a conception of identity and belonging, mimicking dream scenes related to sexuality while simultaneously leaning on collective memory. And precisely at this moment, she surrenders herself to an emotional flow on a ground that deepens despite the ambiguous and abstract plane being constructed.

notes

1 Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış / Velvet Stare, Solo Exhibition, Curated by Emre Baykal, 11 September – 12 April 2025, Arter, Istanbul. Bringing together the artist’s early works with her new pieces, the exhibition presents a comprehensive selection of works created across various media, including painting, printmaking, collage, photography, sculpture and video. By blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, and representation and abstraction, this practice offers a broad window into Güreş’s artistic practice, tracing the visual and conceptual layers that shape the artist’s output.

2 Nilbar Güreş, Monstera, 2025, Copper, pottery, fabric, ceramics, variable dimensions.

3 Nilbar Güreş, Medusa, Çünkü Bizi Şeytanlaştırıyorsunuz!/ Medusa, Because You’re Demonising Us!, 2025, Collage on fabric, 87×114 cm. (Framed).

4 See: Emre Baykal, “More Than One Nilbar”, Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış / Velvet Stare, Other Texts: Emre Baykal, Silvia Eiblmayr and Lora Sarıaslan, Design: Didem Uraler Çelik, Turkish, Arter Publications, Istanbul, September 2025, p. 20.

5 Nilbar Güreş, MAYZU: Hindistancevizi ve Muz Veren Ağaç / MAYZU: The Tree That Bears Coconuts and Bananas 2022, Mixed Media, 400 x 640 x 200 cm.

Two New exhIbItIons

ARTER - İSTANBUL

Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış / Velvet Stare

Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış / Velvet Stare, Solo Exhibition, Curator: Emre Baykal, 11 September 2025 - 12 April 2026, Arter, İstanbul.

VISIT SITE

VENEDİK BİENALİ - TÜRKİYE PAVYONU

Nilbar Güreş: Gözlerinizden Öperim / A Kiss on the Eyes

Nilbar Güreş, A Kiss on the Eyes / Gözlerinizden Öperim, Curator: Başak Doğa Temür, 6 May - 22 November 2026, La Biennale di Venezia, 61st International Art Exhibition, Türkiye Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice.

VISIT SITE

Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış / VELVET STARE, 2025-2026, ARTER – ISTANBUL

Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış / VELVET STARE (KatalogLAR)

Nilbar Güreş: Kadife Bakış, Hazırlayanlar: Emre Baykal, Süreyyya Evren, Metinler: Emre Baykal, Silvia Eiblmayr, Lora Sarıaslan, Kitap Tasarımı: Didem Uraler Çelik, Fotoğraflar: Kayhan Kaygusuz ve Hadiye Cangökçe, Türkçe, 144 sayfa, Arter Yayınları, İstanbul, Eylül 2025.

Nilbar Güreş: Velvet Stare, Prepared by: Emre Baykal and Süreyyya Evren, Texts: Emre Baykal, Silvia Eiblmayr, Lora Sarıaslan, Book Design: Didem Uraler Çelik, Photo by Kayhan Kaygusuz and Hadiye Cangökçe, English, 144 pages, Arter Publishing, İstanbul, September 2025.

NİLBAR GÜREŞ SAGLAMART.COM'DA

Nilbar Güreş, A Kiss on the Eyes / Gözlerinizden Öperim, Curator: Başak Doğa Temür, 6 May - 22 November 2026, La Biennale di Venezia, 61st International Art Exhibition, Türkiye Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice.

GÜLAY YAŞAYANLAR

land: the relational power of a hybrid structure

In this minor cosmos that appeals to a collective memory and shared emotions, Nilbar Güreş explicitly encompasses the singular spaces that intersect with the body through all manner of ‘other’ image-object mechanisms and their interrogations. As observed in the phallic extensions in the form of garments hung from trees… In this space where concepts or issues such as male domination, gendered discourse and discrimination are brought to the fore, and where a hybrid tangle of emotions is explored as a contentious construction, Güreş’s works have, in a sense, transformed into an intellectual spectacle.

YAZIYI OKU / READ MORE

BİYOGRAFİ

Nilbar Güreş (b. 1977, Istanbul) completed her undergraduate studies in the Department of Painting at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Marmara University, and her master’s degree in the Department of Painting and Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Following her master’s degree, she undertook training in Art and Textile Pedagogy at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Güreş’s practice encompasses various media, including photography, video, film, painting, mixed-media collage on fabric, performance, sculpture and installation. Whilst her works often draw on her own life story, they also focus on issues such as social injustice, gender norms and cultural identity codes. Continuing her research to subvert established patterns regarding these topics through humorous and poetic means, Nilbar Güreş carries out her work in Naples, Vienna and Istanbul. (see www.arter.org.tr)

NİLBAR GÜREŞ AT VENICE BIENNALE

İZMİR - LONDON

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