Our Artist Loft Suites at the Old No. 77 Hotel feature works by talented local and regional artists, each piece chosen to inspire and connect. Below, meet the brilliant minds behind the art, bringing the spirit of New Orleans to life in every stroke and sketch.
I am a multidisciplinary artist and urban designer. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, I immigrated to New York City at the age of three. Raised in Queens and Brooklyn and educated in the public school system, I went on to receive a Master’s Degree from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Architecture from Pratt Institute. My projects have been featured at the Venice Biennale, Buenos Aires International Biennial of Architecture, Aqua Art Fair Miami, GLOBAL Design (London), Contemporary Art’s Center New Orleans 40th Anniversary Show and Ephemera Obscura, Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, Governor’s Island Art Center (NYC), the New Institute in Rotterdam, the Osdie Gallery in Toronto, the Inaugural and second Bywater Biennial, and Masterpiece - a P.S. Satellite - A Project of Prospect New Orleans. I have been featured in Metropolis Magazine, Gambit’s Top 40 under 40, was Interviewed on NPR and awarded the Architizer A+ Award. I am the Collectors Club artist for the Contemporary Arts Center, a member of The Front artist collective, and a participating artist in the Jazz and Heritage Festival. I also coordinated the first major Habitat for Humanity Buckminster Fuller Design Science Exhibition in Istanbul.
Now, I am a New Orleans artist living and working in the Bywater neighborhood. My watercolors are a visual summary of the city’s cultural character from iconic to obscure locations in the city.
I was born and raised in New Orleans, and at a young age I took interest in local art and culture. Leaving behind engineering scholarships at 19 to fully pursue my interests, I soon booked my first exhibit in New Orleans showing colored-pencil sketches based on studies of Degas’ dancers.
After these Degas’ studies and many others of great artists, I began pursuing a new, self-taught method that formed into the sculptural-painting and collage techniques I use today. My works using these techniques have been shown in New York, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City galleries.
The goal of my art is to capture authentic experiences in a society that is increasingly filled with artifice and faux luxury. For many of us, reality is less about the pursuit of happiness than the avoidance of anxiety and suffering. I attempt to do so by creating images that depict sublime moments, objects and scenes of beauty, as well as noteworthy people who have contributed to society or my own life in a meaningful way.
I'm inspired by the simplicity of iconography and its ability to reduce an idea or subject to its essence, focusing on a primary characteristic or inherent truth. I choose limited palettes to emphasize specific color relationships and accentuate the shapes and lines of my compositions.
My style employs a flat, illustrative approach that favors a lack of brushstrokes, mimicking the perfection possible with a machine or printed process, while allowing the imperfection inherent in the human hand to remain present and unmistakable.
My hope is to invite the viewer to look deeper into the picture, both metaphorically into the subject matter, as well as physically into the execution of the painting, to wonder whether it was produced by man or machine. I aim to provide the audience with a depth of experience, encouraging them to get close to the work and wonder not only "why was this done?" but also "how was this done?"
