DURMUŞ BAHAR – STROLL in the CLOUDS

“Clouds become a ladder to the sky, a crow spreads its wings within the human soul; with every step, dreams revolve, and stories are found in the heavens.”

Durmuş Bahar’s first solo exhibition titled “Strolling in the Clouds” can be viewed at DG Art Project between December 18, 2024 – January 18, 2025.

Curated by Zeynep Öztürk, the exhibition “Strolling in the Clouds” consists of surreal stories in which Durmuş Bahar brings together visuals and images produced in digital media through the collage technique. The stories are constructed around the timelessness of abstract concepts. Fairy tales, myths, and dreams form part of this surreal language created by the artist. These stories, which take the viewer on a journey between reality and imagination, can be experienced in the exhibition both as “Unique Fine Art Print” works created through digital printing techniques, and as GIF video animations and AI-supported hybrid production videos.

About Durmuş Bahar

The artist was born in Samsun in 1981. He completed his art education at Ondokuz Mayıs University, Faculty of Education, Department of Art Teaching (Painting), and received his master’s degree at the same university with the thesis titled “Education of Mural Painting Techniques in Parallel with Technological Development.” After 2009, he began producing works in digital media.

His works are included in valuable collections both domestically and internationally. In Turkey, his works are found in the collections of Erol Tabanca, Kezban Arca Batıbeki, Mustafa Taviloğlu, Ata Holding, Elgiz Museum, and the Bilfen Art Collection, while a special selection of his works is included in the collection of the Swedish Royal Family.

In 2024, the artist was deemed worthy of the Architect Sinan of the Year Award in the field of painting. It is observed that he constructs his works within a surreal fiction. He uses the digital collage technique to combine painting, illustration, manipulated photographic objects, and digital objects created in digital media. In addition, the artist also experiments with artificial intelligence—considered a new mode of art-making—in his hybrid art productions.

In his works, it is generally seen that he brings together numerous images such as period women’s clothing, steampunk objects, period architecture, skulls, eyes, clouds, ladders, and crows. These images used by the artist were examined as a symbolic language at Gazi University in 2021 and published as an article (G. H. Yayan and E. Kanal, “An Analysis on the Works of Durmuş Bahar,” International Academic Social Resources Journal (ASR Journal), vol. 6, no. 25, pp. 815–826, 2021).

In order to create the magical realism atmosphere in his works, the artist draws upon fairy tales, myths, dreams, and fantastic characters. His works take the viewer on a journey between reality and imagination.