BY EKİN ÇELİKKAN (EE/II)
On February 8, the opening reception for a new exhibition took place in the Library Art Gallery. The exhibition, “Fake Angels,” comprises 24 paintings by Berna Türemen.
In keeping with Ms. Türemen’s fanciful style and fondness for cats, all of the works on display depict cats with an admixture of human femininity. While some of the paintings portray well-groomed, fluffy house cats adorned by such attributes as women’s accessories and long eyelashes, most are extravagant representations of women with human bodies and the heads of cats.
The artist uses a collage technique to dress the figures, employing common materials that might be found in a typical Turkish woman’s house – lace, fragments of paper with prayers written on them, lottery tickets, pearls – providing the cat–woman figures with an unconventional erotic flair.
Moreover, as alluded to in the title “Fake Angels,” all of the cats have wings, and most of them have atop their heads symbolic icons – such as hats, feathers and butterfly-shaped stickers – reminiscent of halos.
The 72-year-old artist received her first award in 1975, since which time she has shown her works in a great number of solo and group exhibitions, and received numerous awards. For those who wish to visit her latest exhibition, “Fake Angels” will run through March 14, and will be open every day (except Sunday) between 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.