The Istanbul contemporary art scene is hosting a dialogue that will not be easily erased from memories—one that is both deeply familiar and globally unsettling. One of the city’s most visionary galleries, Öktem Aykut, is on our radar with the exhibition “Nested,” melting two powerful names it has worked with for many years, Bora Başkan and Mesut Öztürk, into a shared crucible.
Following their respective adventures in Berlin and Paris, the two artists returned to the “furrier’s shop”—meaning Istanbul. After pursuing completely independent practices, they first came together side by side this past February at Artshow organized by the USGD. That organic rhythm and shared abstract language between them now transform into a much deeper resonance on the gallery walls until July 25, 2026.
Bora Başkan: Coastal Impressions from the Memory of an Old Phone Camera
Bora Başkan throws us into a series of timeless coastal snapshots captured at different times of the day, under the scorching sun or moonlight. However, these landscapes are not the glossy, high-resolution digital paintings we are accustomed to.
A hazy seashore captured at sunset with the low-resolution camera of an old mobile phone; the majestic rise of the Lion of Knidos under the scorching midday sun; youths diving into the sea from the rocks for one last time toward evening; retirees playing backgammon on the beach while waiting for their swimsuits to dry… In Başkan’s canvases, figures and objects intertwine, melt, and become abstracted under the burning or setting sun. Even the ironic moment of a dog chasing a rabbit out of the cage of a beach restaurant in the middle of winter becomes a part of this complex memory map.
Mesut Öztürk: Farewell to Perfection and “Flames” Born from Earth
Taking on the sculpture and installation leg of the exhibition, Mesut Öztürk surpasses the boundaries of the eponymous “Nested” series to present us with a brand-new body of work: Flames. In this new period, Öztürk declares that he has completely broken his belief in creating smooth and flawless surfaces, sabotaging all his old habits in the use of glaze and color.
“The world is literally in flames. Crises of knowledge, political conflicts, wars, migrations, economic vulnerabilities, the state of artificial intelligence… Everything we are used to seems to be collapsing amidst the flames. This restless yet intense feeling forced me to produce forms as sharp and arbitrary as flames from a soothing material like earth.” – Mesut Öztürk, 2026
The broken surfaces and complex, intertwined colors in Öztürk’s ceramic sculptures transform into an internalized micro-protest against the course of the world. The soothing nature of earth turns into the fire itself in the artist’s hands, creating a brilliant conceptual contrast.
“Nested” is an extraordinary collaboration established in a gallery facing the same stormy forces by two artists who deeply feel that uncanny tension rising in the world. Yet, the exhibition does not leave us helplessly in the middle of a dark dystopia. On the contrary, beneath all that fire and hazy coastal memories, an unshakable optimism and a deep-rooted love for color continue to smolder from within.
After looking at that familiar melancholy in Bora Başkan’s coastal details, revolve around Mesut Öztürk’s sharp ceramic flames. It is a fantastic July route to view the chaos of the world through art’s healing, colorful, and honest mirror!
