Nazan Gunay was born in  Turkey, in 1950 . She was the daughter of  renown Turkish historian and professor of  Islamic Studies, Ismet Parmaksizoglu. Her works are mixed media, abstract works greatly influenced by Sufism.  

The artist began painting in 1991 after a lifetime of travels to countries around the world, including China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States. She received her Masters degree in painting in 1997, and has been exhibiting her works publicly since 1994.

She explains her motives as follows:

The object of my artwork and the driving force behind everything I do is to share my awe and love of the energy we call "life". Contrasts bring about destruction, change and transformation.

Through everything, life, like water, finds a way to move on.

My paintings can be explained as still frames of this eternal moment of transformation. Chaos and energy are hung in the midst of emptiness or stability, balancing each other. Acrylic and oil washes symbolize mobility and life while vague figures fade into abstraction in layers of color and debris very much like memories and history. Tree trunks, pebbles, cloths represent our marks into time and space, the trophies and leftovers of our experiences.

Technically, my paintings are created with autonomous imagery. Washes of color, energy and various materials (i.e. Pebbles, cloth, wood, acrylic and aluminum) mingle with expressionistic lines to create glimpses of  forms, caught in an act of transformation.

Nazan Gunay, September 2003

Her paintings are owned by private and corporate collections as well as the Istanbul Museum of Modern Art in Istanbul, Turkey.

Joint Exhibitions
2004 The Hague, The Netherlands

2004 Haci Bektas-i Veli Museum  Nevsehir, Turkey
2003 House of Art Vianen, Holland

1995 VAKKO Art Gallery Ankara, Turkey
1995 Ankara Museum of Fine Arts Ankara, Turkey

Solo Exhibitions
2004 Galeri Sans  Ankara, Turkey

2003 Istanbul Art Fair Istanbul, Turkey
2002 Turkish Tourism Information Center Gallery New York, USA
2002 Basak Art Gallery Istanbul, Turkey
2002 Halk Bank Art Gallery Ankara, Turkey
1999 Istanbul Ziraat Cultural Center Istanbul, Turkey
1998 IMKB Art Gallery Istanbul, Turkey
1998 Adana Arikoglu Art Gallery Adana, Turkey
1997 Basak Art Gallery Ankara, Turkey
1996 Ziraat Cultural Center Ankara, Turkey
1994 Akbank Art Gallery Istanbul, Turkey

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