ELVAN ALPAY

ELVAN ALPAY’S FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION IN DUBAI AT SEVIL DOLMACI GALLERY 

“Game Over. Let’s Stop Now.” 

November 26, 2024 – January 1, 2025

Sevil Dolmacı Dubai Design District Building:11 R04, Dubai, UAE 

Sevil Dolmacı Dubai is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in Dubai by Elvan Alpay, a distinguished figure in Turkish contemporary art. Titled “Game Over. Let’s Stop Now.”,the exhibition will run from November 26, 2024, to January 1, 2025, featuring new works created by the artist specifically for this exhibition after a six-year hiatus. The exhibition will present a curated selection of 33 pieces, offering art enthusiasts in the United Arab Emirates a window into Elvan Alpay’s artistic journey.
Throughout nearly 40 years of artistic career, Elvan Alpay has delved into nature and its manifestations, reflecting on nature’s possibilities and the potential of fully exploring them. She emphasizes the importance of questioning within boundaries, asserting that boundaries do not restrict the artist but rather endow the practice with meaning and elegance. For Alpay, meaning lies in contemplating infinity within the finite. After so many years of embracing limitless thoughts within defined limits, what does it signify if the artist now declares “game over”? At “Game Over. Let’s Stop Now,” Sevil Dolmacı Dubai invites viewers to ponder possible answers to this question.

Since the time of Augustine, a prominent theologian and philosopher in Western thought, God has been seen in Christian West as the author and master of nature, which is perceived as the totality of existing beings. Nature’s very existence implies the presence of a creator, an architect, and an executor. This totality is an orderly whole that follows laws, revealing a structured repetition that hints at rules and principles. Of course, these rules and their meanings can only be uncovered to the extent that human intellect allows. According to Geoffrey E.R. Lloyd, a renowned historian of science, nature, even within its autonomy, has its own operational mode, order, rules, and limits—though these boundaries have become vulnerable today. Within this realm, one force never ceases to intervene with nature: humankind. While humans contemplate the essence of what we call nature, they also push nature and existence to the extreme, wondering if there is a boundary to reach. In Ancient Greece, Praxiteles, one of the most famous sculptors of the 4th century BC, questioned whether a human could be carved from stone. Today, humankind ponders whether a person could exist within a computer database. In history, questions carried meaning, purpose, and rationale. When the depth behind questions and practices vanishes, the “game is over, and so is the enjoyment.” Along with it ends the “joyful science” it created.

Elvan Alpay, recognizing that freedom is the essence of nature itself, does not present absolutes or definitive truths. Instead, she grants viewers the freedom to explore and refrains from providing answers. Alpay’s art, like nature, is free and harmonious in its process. Yet, by saying “Game Over. Let’s Stop Now,” is she, for the first time, showing signs of losing hope? Or, as suggested in the following poem by Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats, one of the prominent literary figures of the 20th century, might unknown doors to worlds beyond our imagination be opening before us?

In this storm that grows round and round / The falcon flies and he does not hear what its owner says / Everything is falling down, forest of symbols is full of pity / The earth is in turmoil […] Can center still hold? / The good are devoid of all faith / But why evil is so passionate, why? / It’s obvious that a new secret is about to be revealed / Something we never imagined / Maybe something new is knocking on our door / As soon as I say this, a new and unperceivable image is in front of me / Unlike anything / It’s like the sun, it’s like the sun, it gives life but burns and dries / Darkness comes again but leaves again, why / why a world that doesn’t care about any of this drives things / And who knows where? / The game is over, but are we certain? May be not. Let’s stop for a moment and wait and see, if we can.

About Elvan Alpay:

Elvan Alpay was born in Ankara in 1968. She graduated in 1990 from the Painting Department at Marmara University, from the studio of Hüsamettin Koçan, and completed her master’s degree at the same institution two years later. She worked as a lecturer and continued her research at the Salzburg Academy. In the early 1990s, she opened her first exhibition at Gallery Zon in Ankara, curated by Döne Otyam. Alpay, who believes that nature is the essence of everything, views the creation of her works as a healing process for the artist herself—a healing she aims to extend to viewers. She primarily works in mixed media, often creating three-dimensional works.

Following her solo exhibition at Galerie Les Mondes de l’Art in Paris in 1995, Alpay held several solo exhibitions at Gallery Nev in Istanbul and Ankara in 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2018, and 2019. Her works have also been featured in group exhibitions across notable venues, including the State Painting and Sculpture Museum (1990), Arkeon Gallery, Istanbul (1992), Gallery BM, Istanbul (1993, 1996), Sotheby’s London (1996), AKM, Istanbul
(1996), CAM Gallery, Istanbul (2002), Gallery Nev (2016, 2022), Pera Museum (2018), AKS,
Antalya (2019), Artweeks Akaretler (2022), Contemporary Istanbul (2022, 2024), Atelier Marvy, Izmir (2022), Gagiad, Gaziantep (2023), and in cities such as Düsseldorf, Cologne, London, New York, and Paris. In 2006, she was awarded the Grand Prize at the Beijing Biennale. Her works are part of corporate and private collections, including Fondation Cartier (Paris), Mitsubishi Foundation (Tokyo), OMM-Odunpazarı Modern Museum (Eskişehir), Swiss Hotel (Izmir), and various institutions in Istanbul, including Akbank, Alarko, Arçelik, Boyner, Eczacıbaşı, ENKA, Koç, Mudo, PakMaya, Peninsula Hotel, Sabancı, Turkish Bank, QNB Finansbank, and Yıldız Holding.

The artist continues her work in her studios in Istanbul and Ayvalık, Turkey.