Gallery Ex Machina presents “After me, the body”

The highly anticipated current exhibition at Gallery Ex Machina, called “After Me, The Body”, has finally opened in the context of what we now call the “new normality” after the quarantine period.

The exhibition features explosive artworks from the Canadian painter Jody Bronson, Turkish artists, Serap Gümüşoğlu and Ozan Ünal.

“After Me, The Body” explores the human body in a technological universe, with all its human reflexes, movements and yearnings. Determining this idea as the central axis was a clear decision, as the gallery’s intention is to investigate and diffuse the complex relationship between humans and technology.

The creations represent bodies, through different materials and techniques in unexpected ways.  Acrylics, bronze, and ink show off entities that are fragmented, duplicated, or as a part of the whole. And each one with its own characteristic footprint.

The original style in the sculptures of Ünal are recognized immediately with the repetition of figures in undeniable chemistry, Gümüşoğlu’s paintings with the chaotic blur of the limits, and Bronson’s prints with a hybrid of powerful women and intimidating machines.

This exhibition encourages visitors to ask questions: What is technology doing to our bodies and minds? What is next for the human body, if and when the mind exceeds its physical limits in cyberspace? 

The collection includes 47 unique pieces decidedly using traditional techniques to depict the futuristic. They reference actual issues arising year-by-year with the rapid advances in technology. The similar palette (from copper to black, blue, and green) and the movement these bodies create, generate a swing and an original gesture; guiding and confusing our conscience to reflect… What is beyond the horizon of mind, when the body is left to its materialised disruptions erupting from the static-filled binary voids?

What happens to the body, when separated from conscience?

The Artists

Ozan Unal is a sculptor born in Izmir, Turkey. He graduated in the same city from the Fine Arts Faculty of 9 Eylül University, majoring in fashion and accessory design as well as graphic design. Since 2000 he makes iron/steel and bronze sculptures in his workshop.

Jody Bronson is a self taught drawer, painter and musician, from Canadá.  Inspired by the concept of “femme fatal with a smoking gun” from the future, Jody does large oil scale paintings, and then digitizes them to create a poster, as a magazine cover.

Serap Gumusoglu is a painter and sculptor from Turkey, graduated from Graphic Design in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. She feeds from the dynamic chaos of nature, which is reflected in her work were she combines human figures and animals with abstract elements.