NEW YORK, NY.- Richard Taittinger Gallery presents Come Midnight, a solo exhibition of new work by Turkish artist Haluk Akakçe. In his first US presentation in nearly a decade, Akakçe uses the notion of transformation as a key to investigate the delicate balance between the earth and spirit world. The visionary exhibition showcases all new works: video, paintings, and drawings. Keeping in the theme of the exhibition, the opening reception will take place on the morning of May 16, from midnight to 8am. Entitled after the “zero hour” of transition between one day and the next, Come Midnight embraces the fleeting, intangible, ephemeral aspects of life and aligns these with the physical world.
Akakçe challenges society’s reliance on logic and rationality. In response, the artist choreographs forms in relentless flux. His technique of freehanding in acrylic on wood panel captures the tenuous moment when the corporal and ethereal worlds collide, when decisions made by the psyche translate into physical motion.
The front gallery space represents the “physical world” with large-scale paintings and works on paper. The viewer then navigates through a transitional soundscape pathway, created in collaboration with composer Michael Vecchio, which culminates in the “spirit world.” The back gallery is illuminated by Moonlight Serenade (2015), a single channel video installation that expresses nostalgia for a romantic past and highlights the possibility of organic sensitivity amidst cold mechanization.
The viewer is offered a momentary, fragile, and sensitive vision of transitional states akin to the flutter of butterfly wings. Come Midnight will remain on view through June 21.
Haluk Akakçe (b. 1970) inquires into the existence of alternate time and space on twoand three-dimensional surfaces as well as in moving imagery. Akakçe’s unique practice stems from his early training as an Interior Architect and Environmental Designer in Ankara, Turkey. He earned his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The first time Akakçe presented his work was at the Drawing Center in 1998, while his first video piece The Measure of All Things was shown at MoMA PS1 in 2000. In 2001, he was commissioned by the Whitney Museum of American Art and exhibited at Phillip Morris. In 2005, his Birth of Art was selected for the prestigious British Art Show and featured on the cover of the exhibition catalogue. Akakçe’s work is included in several major international collections: Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; and Hoffman Collection, Berlin.
