Ayşegül Yapar, Nagihan Aydınlık, and Nazif Can Akçalı, graduates of the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Sabancı University were selected among 1,194 applications across the country and were found eligible to participate in BASE 2020.
BASE is an organization that brings together the work of young artists who have just graduated from the painting, sculpture, photography and video, graphic design, visual communication design, printing arts, glass, and ceramics departments of the Faculty of Fine Arts throughout Turkey under the same roof. Introducing newly graduated prospective artists to the public, art sector, creative industries, and media, BASE aspires to support them in their transition from graduation to professional art life and to give their careers momentum and direction.
BASE, the first collective exhibition of new graduates of Fine Arts Faculties in Turkey, received 1,194 applications from 76 universities in 59 cities in Turkey this year. After the evaluation of the Selection Board, 120 works belonging to 98 newly graduated prospective artists from 33 universities in 22 cities were found eligible to be exhibited this year with a majority vote.
Ayşegül Yapar, a graduate of the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS, whose work will be exhibited at BASE 2020, shared her views: “I entered Sabancı University in 2015. In 2020, I graduated from the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program with Art Theory and Criticism and Psychology as my minors. As of Fall 2020, I am continuing my education with the Master's Program in Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design.
I decided to study art in my early childhood. As a child, I began to develop myself in painting, and during my college years, I had the opportunity to experience other forms of art. As a prospective artist, my biggest dream was to present my paintings to the audience in an exhibition one day, so I can say that BASE has already become a unique and beautiful experience for me as it is the first exhibition I will participate in. My goals for the future include continuing to perform art as a priority. Currently, I am about to start a new series of paintings on a topic that I have poured into sketches during the quarantine period and have read and thought about for a long time. I would like to thank my instructor Selim Birsel, a faculty member at the FASS, Sabancı University who guided and always supported me in the process of creating my paintings, which will be part of my graduation exhibition.”
Nagihan Aydınlık, a master’s student at the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS and whose work will be exhibited in BASE 2020 also shared her thoughts and feelings: “I graduated from the Department of Communication Design, Yıldız Technical University. In 2017, I did my internship in Berlin on user experience.
Immediately after the internship, I started working as a visual designer for a company called Commencis, which designs digital experiences and applications. I participated in the experience and visual interface design teams of major bank projects such as Arab National Bank and İş Bank. In 2018, I quit my job after being awarded a full-scholarship master's degree at Sabancı University. I continue my education at the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS, and also continue working as an assistant at the school.
I mostly produce illustrations and animations. I usually work on themes such as the female body, social problems, and taboos.
After graduating from school, I will continue my art and design career individually. I want to go abroad for my doctoral studies once the Covid-19 crisis is over.”
Nazif Can Akçalı, one of the graduates of the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program of the FASS and whose work will be exhibited at BASE 2020, told us about his expectations for the future by giving information about himself as well: “I started the Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program at Sabancı University in 2016. I work in many areas such as painting, video, animation, and graphic design. In 2019, I participated in “Stretching Klee's Line” and “Design Delight” workshops at Bauhaus University. I won the third prize in the experimental film category at the Rofife International Short Film Competition my short film called Seoul(e), which I shot in 2020. I was found eligible to participate in the ALC Videoart Festival organized in Spain and Marmaris International Film Festival. This film included in the Videoart Collection of the Las Cigarreras Cultural Center will be displayed in BASE 2020 along with my photography series, “Dönüşümü Bekleyenler (Those Waiting for Transformation).”
Actually, I did not have any plans to study art in my entire educational life. I decided to study art after enrolling in Sabancı University. We start our university education at Sabancı without a department, we choose our program at the end of the first year. Although I started university thinking that I would study genetics, I decided to study Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design. Seeing the works of the graduates was effective in my decision. It may be a very cliché dream for a prospective artist, but I would say that my biggest dream is to leave valuable and permanent works that will be talked about for years.
In my art, I am inspired by everything from a person’s body to his thoughts; from what he eats and drinks to what he builds and destroys. What a man does and what he will do is incomprehensibly vast. Looking at them with a different perspective, interpreting them, documenting them offers unlimited artistic opportunities. Sometimes it is a psychological condition that very few people experience, sometimes it is the trivial garbage of a food we consume, sometimes it is our values that we first glorify and then try to destroy... It is all an inspiration if you focus on it.”
We congratulate our graduates and wish them continued success.