FATVillage Projects and FAR Gallery

 

Opening Reception: July 29th, 6-10pm

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Artist Talk: August 10th, 7pm

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Closing Reception: August 26th, 6-10pm

 

Fort Lauderdale, FL, July 6, 2017– “WE LOOK LIKE EACH OTHER” by Sibel Kocabasi is an exhibition of new paintings, drawings and photographs that explore women’s roles within traditions that suppress them, specifically where women are physically and symbolically covered and hidden.

Kocabasi’s work is distinctive for its combination of Turkish traditional art technique with a contemporary willingness to experiment with ideas and techniques. She combines the narrative style of manuscript illumination with vivid abstractions.

 

Kocabasi was born in Turkey and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Turkish Traditional Arts (rug-kilim design, natural dyes, conservation and restoration of textiles, and illumination of manuscripts) from Marmara University of Fine Arts in Istanbul. She immigrated to the United States in her mid-30s. After living in California, Texas, and Tennessee, she moved to Florida where she developed an interest in contemporary arts and finished her Master’s degree at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton Florida in painting. Sibel’s graduate work in the US expanded her understanding to include western imagery and theory while her training in traditional Turkish arts allows her to employ a highly refined sense of pattern.

 

About “WE LOOK LIKE EACH OTHER”, Kocabasi writes:

“Where I grew up, as well many other locations around the world, women and girls are literally sold into marriage as property or commodity, with the dowry they make to increase their market value. Young women are valued for their virginity and the size of their dowry, while their intellect and character are diminished. Reactionary paternal governments and cultural leaders attempt to push the culture back in time by reducing the legal age for marriage, reducing the availability of education for women and eroding support for women to have careers outside the home and to live independently.

Why are women's bodies still at the center of cultural taboos?

In developed countries as well,  women’s rights are under attack.

I want to bring attention to women who support the obsolete traditions which demean and suppress them. I want to advocate for women to wake up.”