Avşar and Phillips talk art

The poet and art critic Rowan Ricardo Phillips will sit down for a talk with artist Vahap Avşar to discuss the latter’s “Black Album” exhibition, opening at Rampa Art Gallery today. The use of metallic silver paint and felt tar represents an immersion into a new medium by Avşar, one in which the materials often have a mind of their own.

From the uncontrollable aspects of Avşar’s process, how the materials mix and move to create their final visual effect, emerge two layered and spectacular worlds: one familiar and the other fantastical. Phillips, will sit down for an in-depth conversation with Avşar about the highly provocative ways this exhibition connects to and diverges from Avşar’s prior work. In what ways does Black Album a continuation of the major ideas of Avşar’s career? And in what ways is it a new starting point? The two will share their visions of how “Black Album” relates to Avşar’s past, present and future as an artist in an ever-changing world.