Guler Ates, Woman in La Venaria Reale II, 2024
Archival Pigment Print, 50 x 34cm, edition of 5
Turkish-born artist Güler Ates works in a variety of media including video, photography, printmaking and site-responsive performance. Her theatrical images merge Eastern and Western sensibilities to explore, in her words, ‘the experience of cultural displacement’.
Güler works with models draped in richly-coloured veils throughout her artistic practice. These mysterious figures are often photographed as if quietly passing through architecturally lavish interiors, in locations chosen for their links to colonialism and ‘the East’. Güler’s imagery also references European traditions of veiled woman as seen in the paintings of old masters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. These comparisons, for the artist, ‘highlight social and political issues, especially those surrounding gender politics and the veil’.
This new, unframed work is one of a series of limited edition images created in the World Heritage Site of the work’s title, a royal palace is situated just outside Turin, Italy. Now restored to its former grandeur, La Venaria Reale spent much of the twentieth century in disrepair and decline, having been the site of military activity precipitated by Napoleon’s arrival. For the artist, the use of blue in the figure’s veil brings to mind the ‘lapis lazuli stones mined in Afghanistan by Italian traders in the 14th and 15th century to make ultramarine’ - a deep blue, highly prized pigment.
Güler moved from Turkey to London in 1998, studying first at Lewisham College and then moving on to a BA in Painting at Wimbledon School of Art. She subsequently graduated with an MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art in 2008. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including solo exhibitions in Washington DC, Mumbai, Turin, Amsterdam, Napoli, Porto, Okinawa and London. Güler has been awarded numerous prizes for her work including the Arts Council England Project Award in 2020. Her work is also held in notable collections including the Royal Collection, Turin, Italy, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Government Arts Collection, UK.
Archival Pigment Print, 50 x 34cm, edition of 5
Turkish-born artist Güler Ates works in a variety of media including video, photography, printmaking and site-responsive performance. Her theatrical images merge Eastern and Western sensibilities to explore, in her words, ‘the experience of cultural displacement’.
Güler works with models draped in richly-coloured veils throughout her artistic practice. These mysterious figures are often photographed as if quietly passing through architecturally lavish interiors, in locations chosen for their links to colonialism and ‘the East’. Güler’s imagery also references European traditions of veiled woman as seen in the paintings of old masters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. These comparisons, for the artist, ‘highlight social and political issues, especially those surrounding gender politics and the veil’.
This new, unframed work is one of a series of limited edition images created in the World Heritage Site of the work’s title, a royal palace is situated just outside Turin, Italy. Now restored to its former grandeur, La Venaria Reale spent much of the twentieth century in disrepair and decline, having been the site of military activity precipitated by Napoleon’s arrival. For the artist, the use of blue in the figure’s veil brings to mind the ‘lapis lazuli stones mined in Afghanistan by Italian traders in the 14th and 15th century to make ultramarine’ - a deep blue, highly prized pigment.
Güler moved from Turkey to London in 1998, studying first at Lewisham College and then moving on to a BA in Painting at Wimbledon School of Art. She subsequently graduated with an MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art in 2008. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including solo exhibitions in Washington DC, Mumbai, Turin, Amsterdam, Napoli, Porto, Okinawa and London. Güler has been awarded numerous prizes for her work including the Arts Council England Project Award in 2020. Her work is also held in notable collections including the Royal Collection, Turin, Italy, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Government Arts Collection, UK.
Archival Pigment Print, 50 x 34cm, edition of 5
Turkish-born artist Güler Ates works in a variety of media including video, photography, printmaking and site-responsive performance. Her theatrical images merge Eastern and Western sensibilities to explore, in her words, ‘the experience of cultural displacement’.
Güler works with models draped in richly-coloured veils throughout her artistic practice. These mysterious figures are often photographed as if quietly passing through architecturally lavish interiors, in locations chosen for their links to colonialism and ‘the East’. Güler’s imagery also references European traditions of veiled woman as seen in the paintings of old masters such as Vermeer and Rembrandt. These comparisons, for the artist, ‘highlight social and political issues, especially those surrounding gender politics and the veil’.
This new, unframed work is one of a series of limited edition images created in the World Heritage Site of the work’s title, a royal palace is situated just outside Turin, Italy. Now restored to its former grandeur, La Venaria Reale spent much of the twentieth century in disrepair and decline, having been the site of military activity precipitated by Napoleon’s arrival. For the artist, the use of blue in the figure’s veil brings to mind the ‘lapis lazuli stones mined in Afghanistan by Italian traders in the 14th and 15th century to make ultramarine’ - a deep blue, highly prized pigment.
Güler moved from Turkey to London in 1998, studying first at Lewisham College and then moving on to a BA in Painting at Wimbledon School of Art. She subsequently graduated with an MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art in 2008. Her work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally including solo exhibitions in Washington DC, Mumbai, Turin, Amsterdam, Napoli, Porto, Okinawa and London. Güler has been awarded numerous prizes for her work including the Arts Council England Project Award in 2020. Her work is also held in notable collections including the Royal Collection, Turin, Italy, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Government Arts Collection, UK.
