Tahir Cengiz Yatağan
—Sanatçı
Cengiz Yatağan, who is preparing to exhibit his works in international art institutions, began his art production in 2012 and continues his work in his studio located in Beyoğlu, which we can consider as the art center of Istanbul.
In previous years, his personal works executed on canvas with acrylic paintings, as well as the group exhibitions he participated in, consist of abstract works that do not refer to the objective reality like a traditional understanding, where each piece is dependent on a whole and the whole is dependent on its parts, like an organism. Yatağan always presents us with a discovery in his creative practice. The paintings he created on metal plates represent a period that conveys the concepts of emptiness and completion.
Yatağan's recent works, on the other hand, form a maximum depth painting topography on canvas by combining different materials and epoxy using a technique he devised himself. In his artworks, the artist has integrated materials with his own style to such an extent that he presents vertical and horizontal compositions to the viewer that evoke a sense of touch, giving the feeling that they have spontaneously emerged without human touch.
The artist's paintings, which he forms homogeneously from paint and colors, visualize the interrelation of nature and his own concepts, akin to volcanic geological formations. These surfaces immerse the viewer into the vastness of nature; like the repetition of nature but with nothing resembling each other. The transition from human fingerprints to tree trunks, from marble veins to the delicacy of a leaf takes place. Yatağan, who brings together sharpness and fleeting softness, draws a roadmap to the level of spiritual evolution in Rumi's Sufi philosophy, from cultural heritage to his unique painting style in the process of finding. A series of abstract images ensures evolutionary coherence. This process leaves us face to face with ourselves by questioning the first breath we take from life, our exchanges in the process of life, and the life cycle between the past and the future. Cengiz Yatağan establishes a rare deep relationship between spirituality and plastic arts. Yatağan's paintings create a field of spiritual energy.
Based on this, we can easily say that Yatağan creates a new language by blending the transparent structure we see in his works with various materials.
In this context, Yatağan persistently stretches the boundaries, helping us remember our own energy force and enabling the intimacy granted by mutual enlightenment. It demonstrates the infinity and continuity provided by human evolution.