Meet the artist - Ugur Ulusoy

Ugur Ulusoy

SETAREH is pleased to present Meet the Artist, an online series where you will get to know young talented artists and their work. An insight to their practice, connection to art and what inspires them. In this episode we present Uğur Ulusoy.

Uğur Ulusoy (b. 1984 in Oberhausen) studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Braunschweig, where he graduated as a "Meisterschüler" of Hartmut Neumann. In 2020 he completed a formative year under Franz Ackermann at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe. He has been awarded the advancement award "Hans-Purrmann-Preis" and the ‚Kunstpreis »junger westen« 2019 - Malerei’. In 2020 he participated in the exhibition "I´m not always where my body is" at the Kunstverein Braunschweig and in "hybr!de (r)evolut!on" at SETAREH X.

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Ulusoy works with different textiles, which he paints in rich colours. He hangs them on the wall as panels or held by frames and creates, collage-like interwoven, large-format landscapes. This happens in intuitive processes between structured working methods and free development, comparable to the 'écriture automatique'. Expressive application of paint and energetic, vibrant colours characterise his works. Merging colour surfaces alternate with anthropomorphic forms, small-scale architectural structures with writings and stencils. The given space and atmosphere play an active role during the artistic process, as they stimulate an influence the artwork and become part of the work itself.

zivistana qehwegî, 2020
acrylic, oil, oil sticks, oil pastel, spray paint andink on different fabrics
170 x 130 cm

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agnotology, 2021
acrylic, oil, oil sticks, oil pastel, spray paint andink on different fabrics, mounted on wooden frame
160 x 130 cm

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What is the emotion moves you to a painting?

Uğur Ulusoy: I start my work without having any chosen topic, photograph or sketch. All I have is a feeling for the moment, then, I look for the right music. I usually search until I find the appropriate music according to my emotional state and then I start painting. Sometimes, depending on my mood, I start with more joyful colours. But the colours can always change. What seems to be a happy vivid nuance in one picture, might be an unpleasant one in the other. Therefore, I do not think much about it, it all comes from the gut and intuitively. How do I feel in that moment? Which brush strength should I use? Should I use a brush at all or my own hand? Or should I spray paint from the can directly to the surface? That changes everytime.

dik dur, 2020
acrylic, oil, oil sticks, oil pastel, spray paint andink on different fabrics
160 x 130 cm

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What inspires you the most?

Uğur Ulusoy: Actually, life as a whole. For me it's like that, I try to bring everything together, in the sense of all the different worlds in which I may dive. When I meet old friends, when I'm home with my family, when I’m at the gallery -like just now-, or when I meet collectors at their homes and we hang the works together. These events give me incredible impressions every time. For me, that is what inspires me the most. Again and again, as an observer being allowed to dive somewhere, to absorb everything, to open all my senses as far as possible but also to look at unpleasant things, to listen and to bring them together.

gem*einsam, 2020
acrylic, oil, oil sticks, oil pastel, spray paint andink on different fabrics, mounted on wooden frame
145 x 125 cm

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Looking into the future - Where do you see yourself in 5 years from now?

Uğur Ulusoy: I don't look that far into the future. I have very general wishes and dreams. I can only speak for now. I've been living in Krefeld for a year now. I moved here for the last exhibition at SETAREH X. Before that, I was based in Karlsruhe, where I went for the Meisterschüler class of Franz Ackermann and now I'll be leaving Krefeld at the end of the year. I’m noticing a nomadic quality which has always been a part of me and that now finally gets clearance. 3 years from now, I definitely want to relocate every year, not back to the same places, but always further. I would like to move towards Southern Spain, where I hope to see myself living in a farm and having my studio there in 10 years. As for my work, I can't stop making art, as I need it for myself. So, I will always be in action. The works that I make are getting bigger and bigger, going further into the room and using the space available. That will definitely be an important part in the near future.