We are pleased to announce Cosmic Force, a solo exhibition of works by multidisciplinary artist Sibel Kocabasi. Serving as an overview of the artist's career, the exhibition will present several bodies of work.
Kocabasi's new paintings from 2021-2 feature pearlescent, floating color fields that encompass the artist's vision of a timeless and infinite space. Created during a time of reckoning in the artist's life, these paintings are of an automatic style and position the self within the universe as a form of healing. Cosmic Force will also feature a glimpse into the artist's new medium: "solar" or "space" blankets developed by NASA in the 1970s for spacecraft insulation, today often used by refugees crossing dangerous terrain to seek a better life. In her photographs, Kocabasi obscures her identity as the golden blankets swirl around her. Recently, she began painting directly on the blankets, transforming them into canvases. The earliest works in the show, from 2011 onward, depict the artist grappling with themes of space, time, and the forces of the universe. Ultimately, Kocabasi's work focuses on contemporary concerns such as identity, migration, and freeing oneself from suppression.
Kocabasi was born in Northwest Turkey and was raised in Istanbul. Today, she lives and works in South Florida. She received her BFA in Turkish Traditional Arts from the Marmara University of Fine Arts in Istanbul, and her MFA from Florida Atlantic University. Her work is held in the collections of Beth Rudin DeWoody and the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami, and her works have been exhibited at the International Cairo Biennial; International Museum of Art & Science, McAllen, TX; and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul.
Cosmic Force opens January 6th and will run through February 4th.
A reception will be held Saturday January 7th 6-8pm and will be open to the public.