Armaggan Nuruosmaniye Gallery / States of Material Exhibition / Artists and Designers Collective Works

Yesterday, I was invited to a very exciting exhibition at the heavenly beautiful store of Armaggan  Nuruosmaniye Gallery in Istanbul. If you are a fan of  this exotic city and its rich culture I m pretty sure  you  know or at least heard about this historical neighborhood of NuruOsmaniye in Sultanahmet (It is the street where  one of the major Grandbazaar gate is opening to). I found particularly  meaningful that this exhibition has come together in this area since  it had been the  address  for passionate people who are looking forward to discover art, design and culture in material form for ages right in this area.

First, I found the headline of  State of  Material   interesting and when I read about the content I felt totally excited about this coming exhibition. After all the combination of art, design, material, objects, research and collaboration which were mentioned as the highlights of the context, they were the  issues which I was passionate about… So yesterday, finally there I was looking at the artworks of 18 groups of artists and designers, all  visioning  the world from their own perspective and have their own ideas putting  new and traditional materials together. Each piece were created individually  for the propose of the State of Material exhibition.  While some of them were the artists’ and designers’  independent solo work, some were the collective work of  a designer and an artist.   I found the results  amazing…  quality of art works, materialization of artistic vision and resulting it in contemporary style… All it was there. I say a must see exhibition, even though I can’t cover it all here in the blog page here I m sharing with you some examples which I photographed from the gallery yesterday, so you ll get an idea.

In many ways I have seen cross sections between Designmixer’s  appreciation and understanding of art, design and being of  materials in the content of the exhibition!  I liked the way how  the curator of the exhibition – Sanel San – discussed  about the context of the Unity of Art Design and the Material also  its relation to  the artist in her below statement:

“As the achievements of humanity in culture and technology continued, the variety of materials increased and became the instrument of expression for new ideas. Many different materials like wood, metal, glass, marble; then polyester, plastic, corian, fiberglass, acrylic perished works of art and design products. New depths of imagination presented it to the audience. Though this looked like the declaration of independence for the artist, it also carried some problems within. Words of American artist Sol Lewitt who is identified with and pioneer of many movements like conceptual art and minimalism, summarizes these risks: “it takes a good artist to use good materials and make them into work of art. The danger is, I think, in making the physicality of the materials so important that it becomes the idea of the work.” Namely, it is an intriguing question how the creative person decides which material to use in this process poetically: ” Artist searches his material with love, examines deeply, observes its behaviors and reactions, questions it to become its master, comments on it with the aim of tame deeply in to it to make it submit to his own will; examines it deeply in order to reveal hidden possibilities that can suit his aims; he searches if thinking it could show him new and original possibilities…”

As a final word, I congratulate this wonderful collective work which was curated by Sanel San, all the designers and artists involved with this project. Armaggan proofed that it is not only a brand of excellent products and perfectionism but also a pool of thoughts supporting creative ideas. Big applauses to Armaggan and the creative team for that and thank you for letting us to enjoy this great show!