Mahmut Celayir’s solo show “Pekerun II”, regarded as a continuation of the artist’s works exhibited in a previous show “Pekerun I” (2008-2009), can be viewed between the dates 2 – 30 April at C.A.M. Gallery.

The works in the show are the memoirs of the artist’s journeys taken in the nature; the visual and the intellectual projection of his passages. Pekerun (meaning the place beyond the stones) is a place of myths and dreams for the artist: a place of questioning existence. The artist searches for a collective memory and is after the tracks of identity through the regions where today shepherds take their animals out to pasture and where once kings and armies had marched, exodus and banishments had taken place. The paintings are constructed through the patterns of this special geography.

Composed on the tensions between the light and shadow, darkness and brightness; the solitude of the human being among the emptiness of the nature is questioned through the paintings.

Among the realist works that emphasize the land and the atmosphere, there are works depicting the artist’s nude body placed in the nature as an iconographic form. This style or the attitude of the artist that we specifically encounter in German romanticism makes a reference to an art historic heritage.

As a consolidation to the cosmic aura dominant in the show, a large abstract painting formed by mixed media from old newspapers to cardboards is exhibited. In his latest show, Celayir proceeds with his search for a contemporary nature painting based on local materials.