The Threshold Where the Familiar Dissolves: Serkan Küçüközcü and “BADE” at Anna Laudel Istanbul

That initial sense of familiarity appearing at first glance on the canvas gives way to ambiguity and an intuitive flux as one is drawn into the painting’s layers. Anna Laudel Istanbul hosts “BADE,” the sixth solo exhibition bringing together Serkan Küçüközcü’s new period of production, from September 11 to November 1, 2026. Featuring a total of 20 new works, the selection focuses on memory, intuition, and the fluid bond humans establish between their inner worlds and external reality.

In Küçüközcü’s paintings, forms may initially evoke concrete references in the mind, yet as the canvas surface is worked, this objective tie begins to dissolve. Moving away from being the objects they represent, figures turn into emotional traces, hard-to-explain intuitive realms, and remnants of memory. Rather than imposing a single overarching narrative upon the viewer, the exhibition presents independent stories—each standing within its autonomous realm, yet open to external interpretation. Meaning thus becomes a living concept, continuously reshaped at the precise moment the artwork and the viewer interact, rather than remaining a fixed terminus.

“BADE” positions painting as a dreamlike sanctuary where time is suspended and a personal reverie materializes on canvas. The pauses and quiet spaces offered by the paintings transform the viewer into an active participant who fills these voids with their own memories and experiences. Remaining on view until early November, the exhibition opens the doors to meeting within a shared imaginative realm.