CANSU KORKMAZ
2DCansu Korkmaz (1989) is a Turkish visual artist living and working in New York. The focus of her work is to explore ways of documenting intimacy, memory, and identity. She aims to challenge photography’s ability to reflect and compartmentalize the physical and the ethereal within rapidly changing social landscapes and human interactions. Therefore, she approaches photography both as a physical entity — the printed image — and as a fleeting gesture, the captured moment. In her work, she deconstructs the methods of capturing a subject and storing its printed version. If memories, according to Proust, are fluid, unedited, and non-chronological, why are photographs so pristine and ordered?
By examining how memories function and how we perform acts of remembrance, she seeks hidden narratives in the orchestration of various images together. She views this attempt as a queer approach, in terms of deconstructing the inherent process of production and conception of an entity, which in this case is photography. In her works, reality becomes distorted, imperfect, and subjective, much like memories and the way we internalize them. Like a queer body, these images rebel against the norm and construct their own versions of 'being.'
Solo Exhibitions
2019 "QUITE A WHILE" SOHO20 Gallery, NY/USA
2016 "MINI ÇARSI-MINI MARKET" Poligon-The Shooting Gallery, IST/TR
Group Exhibitions
2023 The Bridge and Tunnel Gallery, In-between, NY/USA
2019 Mixer Gallery, Lens’19 Things Seen, IST/TR
Equity Gallery, Dynamis, NY/USA
2018 Gramercy Gallery, School of Visual Arts, NY/USA
Les Rencontres D'Arles, On The Frontiers of Freedom, Arles/FR
Daire Art Gallery, Becoming Cure As Care Exhibition, IST/TR
2016 Harup Exhibition, It Takes One To Know One, IST/TR
2015 International Photography Festival - THE LIVES OF OTHERS, IST/TR
Formation Name BOOKLAB artist book exhibition, IST/TR
Personal Storytelling with Arja Hyytiäinen, SALT Galata, IST/TR
2014 CULLT Russia - Light is There When We Are Not, YG/RU
BAUGallery-Oblivion, IST/TR
ALAN Istanbul-New Photography, IST/TR
UFAT-Signals and Systems, Bursa/TR
YTU-Photography Days, IST/TR
Selected Residencies
2020 Arquetopia Foundation, Art and Design Artist Residency, MEX/PU
2019 Residency Unlimited, Discrimination and Marginalization Artist Residency, NY/USA
2018 School of Visual Arts, Photography and Video Artist Residency, NY/USA
Artist Talks
2021 ICP Guest Artist with Allen Frame, NY/USA
2019 SVA Guest Artist, MFA-Thesis Class with Allen Frame, NY/USA
Quite a While, Artist Talk, SOHO20 Gallery, NY/USA
2015 Bahçeşehir University, Guest Artist with Orhan Cem Çetin, IST/TR
BOOKLAB, Artist Talk, Filbooks Karaköy, IST/TR
Cansu Korkmaz (1989) is a Turkish visual artist living and working in New York. The focus of her work is to explore ways of documenting intimacy, memory, and identity. She aims to challenge photography’s ability to reflect and compartmentalize the physical and the ethereal within rapidly changing social landscapes and human interactions. Therefore, she approaches photography both as a physical entity — the printed image — and as a fleeting gesture, the captured moment. In her work, she deconstructs the methods of capturing a subject and storing its printed version. If memories, according to Proust, are fluid, unedited, and non-chronological, why are photographs so pristine and ordered?
By examining how memories function and how we perform acts of remembrance, she seeks hidden narratives in the orchestration of various images together. She views this attempt as a queer approach, in terms of deconstructing the inherent process of production and conception of an entity, which in this case is photography. In her works, reality becomes distorted, imperfect, and subjective, much like memories and the way we internalize them. Like a queer body, these images rebel against the norm and construct their own versions of 'being.'
Solo Exhibitions
2019 "QUITE A WHILE" SOHO20 Gallery, NY/USA
2016 "MINI ÇARSI-MINI MARKET" Poligon-The Shooting Gallery, IST/TR
Group Exhibitions
2023 The Bridge and Tunnel Gallery, In-between, NY/USA
2019 Mixer Gallery, Lens’19 Things Seen, IST/TR
Equity Gallery, Dynamis, NY/USA
2018 Gramercy Gallery, School of Visual Arts, NY/USA
Les Rencontres D'Arles, On The Frontiers of Freedom, Arles/FR
Daire Art Gallery, Becoming Cure As Care Exhibition, IST/TR
2016 Harup Exhibition, It Takes One To Know One, IST/TR
2015 International Photography Festival - THE LIVES OF OTHERS, IST/TR
Formation Name BOOKLAB artist book exhibition, IST/TR
Personal Storytelling with Arja Hyytiäinen, SALT Galata, IST/TR
2014 CULLT Russia - Light is There When We Are Not, YG/RU
BAUGallery-Oblivion, IST/TR
ALAN Istanbul-New Photography, IST/TR
UFAT-Signals and Systems, Bursa/TR
YTU-Photography Days, IST/TR
Selected Residencies
2020 Arquetopia Foundation, Art and Design Artist Residency, MEX/PU
2019 Residency Unlimited, Discrimination and Marginalization Artist Residency, NY/USA
2018 School of Visual Arts, Photography and Video Artist Residency, NY/USA
Artist Talks
2021 ICP Guest Artist with Allen Frame, NY/USA
2019 SVA Guest Artist, MFA-Thesis Class with Allen Frame, NY/USA
Quite a While, Artist Talk, SOHO20 Gallery, NY/USA
2015 Bahçeşehir University, Guest Artist with Orhan Cem Çetin, IST/TR
BOOKLAB, Artist Talk, Filbooks Karaköy, IST/TR
