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Reyhan Gulses Demirciouglu is a Santa Monica based contemporary fine artist originally born in Istanbul. She received her BFA and MFA in Graphic Design, and later went on to freelance illustrate before getting her PhD in Fine Arts in Painting at Yeditepe University, Istanbul.
She is skilled in many mediums including oil painting, printmaking, and performance art. Her background in elite gymnastics inspired her avant-garde PHD thesis titled “Body Language and Gesturality in the Art of Painting from Yves Klein to Today”, in which she used her body to explore its transformative contributions on canvas.
Her visually stimulating oil painting series, “Timeless Times'' reflects her own personal experiences and observations using abstract colors and elements of realism. The juxtaposition of features creates a distortion of perception, metaphorical to the many different states of mind. Reyhan says, “We all see and live approximately the same things, but never record the same feelings for them. Perceptions and reactions to life in (or with) reference to our own way of response are just like black and white reality in a colorful world. Even though the paintings identify with life in a symbolic way, they are not narratives, and do not aim to tell a story. They just show the emotional state of the figures”
Reyhan’s printmaking experiments with the interaction between textures, stains and colours. These pieces consider elements of “speed” and “momentum” through the figures themselves, and the instantaneous method of mono-printing.
Her art is characterized by visual richness and beautifully expresses contemplative themes of time, perception, emotion, perspective, psychology, and identity. Her style and technique vary in response to different themes related to the human experience. Reyhan is passionate about her art and continues to make pieces that are open to interpretation, giving her audience the chance to bond to her work through their own exploration of symbolism and meaning.