Prints from artist and Department of Fine Arts Assistant Professor Ilgım Veryeri Alaca, a
visiting lecturer in the Department of Art and Art History for the 2006-2007 academic year
at the University of Richmond, are being featured in a solo exhibit at the Joel and Lila
Harnett Museum of Art in Richmond, Virgina.
An invitation to exhibit her work followed, prompting "Ilgım Veryeri-Alaca: Recent
Prints and Drawings," an exhibition of mixed media on paper at the university's Joel
and Lila Harnett Museum of Art.
K. B. Basseches, an artist, art educator and freelance curator at the School of the Arts,
Virginia Commenwealth University expressed her thoughts about Veryeri Alaca:
"Suggestive words such as 'voyage,' 'odyssey,' 'compass,' 'sea,' 'birth,' 'life,'
'sleep' and 'death' pepper the titles of the works and appear in the accompanying
exhibition catalogue sponsored by Turkish Cultural Foundation and Office of International
Education (University of Richmond). They amplify the works themselves, reinforcing the
notion that Veryeri Alaca is pursuing a mysterious life-journey. Moreover, Veryeri-Alaca's
biography confirms that the artist has followed a nomadic path, swimming back and forth
between Turkey and the US with several stops for her artwork in a variety of European
states.
The selection of works on display at the University of Richmond is made up of objects that
were created immediately before her trip to the United States and of others that were
completed on site at the university. Among those included, it is clear that
Veryeri-Alaca's use of water mediums is matched to her motivations."
Authors, as well as visual artists, influence Veryeri-Alaca's aesthetic. "Orhan
Pamuk, Edip Cansever, Asaf Halet Çelebi, Hilmi Yavuz, Ece Ayhan, İlhan Durusel, and
Nilay Özer are some of the Turkish writers/poets I admire," she said. "I also
like to read Rainer Marie Rilke, J. Luis Borges, Fernando Pessoa, Simic, Basho and many
more."
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