Nilbar Güreş, Underneath, 2019, fabric, 115 x 72 x 18 cm. Courtesy the artist and GALERIST, Istanbul, photo: Reha Arcan
In her work, marked by humour and playful irony, Nilbar Güreş (b.1977, lives and works in Vienna and Istanbul), questions conventional roles of and relationships between the sexes. Indicating potentials for strengthening feminine and queer identities, her artistic practice is based on subtle moments of resistance, whose staging on the margin of the everyday appears quietly radical.
Güreş works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, installation, photography, film, performance, collage and drawing. Textiles are an important medium for the artist, which she incorporates in her photographs, collages and sculptures, in order to reflect perceptions of the body and social structures of possession. In the recent Sour as a Lemon (2020), fabric is transferred from the traditional context of handicraft to the (trans)gender political narratives of the sculptures.
Following recent exhibitions dedicated to her work from 2005 to 2018 (Lentos Kunstmuseum, Linz; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe), this monographic presentation focuses on the last six years of Güreş’ career.
