'ONE OF US ' Interview with Ayca Güney — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

‘ONE OF US’ Interview with Ayca Güney

Born in Bursa, Turkey, in 1989, Ayca Güney Turkish painter, designer and art writer. She focused on painting when she was 16 years. In 2010, she graduated from Başkent University, with a Bachelor's degree in Interior Architecture, Ankara. (TR) She also studied in Germany, where she won the 'Best Architectural Concept 2010' award at 'imm Cologne' trade fair along with Prof. Bernd Benninghoff's design team.

In 2013, she was accepted to Product Design Master Program in Domus Academy in Milan. During her master, she worked with Miriam Mirri. Her first solo exhibition were featured at Art212 Gallery, in Istanbul. Also in 2017 she exhibited at Florence Biennale, with the theme 'Earth, Creativity, Sustainability.' In 2017-2018, she attented group exhibitions in London, Florence and Bodrum.

In 2017, she won ''Middle East Female Art Award'', Global Art Awards, Dubai. In her art works, you would see a sensory form of stylized, idealized and empathetic portraits that is a depiction of her friends, family, book characters and musicians; all of which have found a new life with her by watercolour and oil colour.

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Could you please introduce yourself and tell us how you started in the arts? and your first experience in art making?

I am Ayca Güney. I was always drawing pictures while I was reading, listening music as a kid.Then, I had no idea I'd be an artist.It had been taken it normally that I drew pictures in the mathematics and physics lessons.I had undergraduate education of interior architecture in Ankara, Turkey and post graduate of product design in Milan, Italy.I worked on drawing I made with pleasure and never gave up since my childhood after I got back to Turkey, finished school layer.

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How would you describe yourself and your artwork?

I was painting from a very early age, my sense of wonder and exploratory competence improved with design education I had.

The symbols and images that be used in the most primitive ages became the first communication instruments of mankind. For example, the portraits of Fayum in the underground cemeteries, when Egypt was under the sovereignty of the Roman Empire; It was built between the centuries of 1-3. The portraits of Fayum make it possible to revive the hell and gone world in our eyes .These portraits gets through to us that people from different nations, cultures and beliefs who lived thousands of years before us, once lived in this world, just like us, even if they no longer live; they confirm that life is a gift to us and always will be. It is for this reason that the people's perspective drew their portraits focus on the known life will be lost at one of the days.

In this way, what does the artist do? It stops the moment, deepens it, sharpens it and has been experienced the beauty that we don't settle in our life to us. My sense is also the sense of someone else. Anxiety, curiosity or stability....The portraits in the picture provide us to recognize the line that makes us human. When I makes drawing I turn into another person, and after my drawings complete, they represent the perfect integrity between inside and outside.

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Where do you get your inspiration from?

As a kid, we kept our family photos in albums. In this way I would try to find my family tree with photos by looking at grandmother or their aunt. As a family tradition, we had enlarged the some photos of them and hung them on the wall. I remember the days when we kept the photos of people we loved in our wallet in the 90s. Yes, we used to save ourselves and our loved ones' portraits in printed albums. Now digitally on our mobile phones.In this way, it is possible to illustrate portraits from a photograph. In the picture, each line is colored with what you are. What you are is your life story. At some point in life, sooner or later, one has to be conscious of himself. My portraits don't stop looking at me and their audience. They act as a mirror. We are all connected to each other, but also very different. We all need portraits. I'm looking for others on my own faces, myself on their faces.

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What emotions do you hope the viewers experience when looking at your art?

An artistic image can evoke similar emotions in viewers, but later thoughts may be different. When he is looking at the picture, it is very important what the audience is. Because, although all portraits look different from each other, I draw a common language with the audience because I draw with my emotions. That's the line that makes us human. They think they are mostly direct and naive.

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When do you know that an artwork is finished ?

I think I shed light on the deepest feelings of the audience with my pictures.

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What has been the most exciting moment in your art career so far?

There are too many patterns to get excited .The most exciting one is the surprises of art and the production process .The sharing and the touch of souls who see and respond to my art.However, especially after I opened my first exhibition to answer the aline career Floransa question, I joined the Florence Biennale.In the same year , I won the Middle East Female Art Award at the Global Art Award in Dubai. The reward was encouraging. I continue to exhibit my paintings in our country and abroad.I think the most exciting thing is the process!