Artists › Ali Rıza Kanaç
Born in Ereğli, Konya, in 1989, Ali Rıza Kanaç completed primary and high school education in Konya. From 2007 to 2009 Kanaç worked in the studio of the painter İbrahim Rızayev. In 2009 Kanaç was admitted to the Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Selçuk University, and in the 2010–2011 academic year was named to the faculty’s top 10 percent achievement list. Kanaç studied for a year on a scholarship at the Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti di Torino in Italy, in the studio of Prof. Claudio Pieroni. Kanaç’s first solo exhibition opened at Amantes Gallery in 2012. In 2013 Kanaç graduated from the Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Selçuk University. In 2018 Kanaç completed a master’s degree with the thesis “Resimde Manipülasyon Bağlamında Mekan ve Figür,” supervised by Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Elmas. Kanaç is continuing doctoral studies in the Painting branch of the Painting Program, Institute of Social Sciences, Selçuk University.
Why bison? When we look at the earliest history of painting, the human and animal figures in cave paintings, though their purpose is still debated, are without doubt among the most striking examples of the human brain’s capacity for abstraction. In the beliefs of the earliest ages, nature appears as a concept merged with spirituality, something to be learned, understood, and become one with. Whether behind it lay the idea of making pictures of hunted animals or a concern to make art, the urge to paint has existed since the first ages of human history. A way of thinking that links painting with supernatural forces and beliefs can still be found today. Perhaps even today the images and colors that are chosen, and all stylistic formations, are bound up with the beliefs in artists’ unconscious and with their spiritual attachment to nature. In this sense, the bison forms I use in my paintings are undoubtedly a product of the psychic tangle of nature, human, and animal formed in my unconscious. Along with the bison figures in cave paintings, the shapes and colors that caves have formed naturally over thousands of years have also influenced me, and so similar painterly surfaces of texture and color have emerged in my paintings. The bison became an image in my paintings because it has a distinctive body form and because, even in primitive times, its depictions were among the effective examples of abstraction. In the period we call the age of technology, in which we now live, it has become possible to reach every kind of visual data and information. Why bison? Because I have never seen a bison, but I have seen many photographs of bison. The sketches I take from these photographs are arranged according to the composition I want to build on the picture surface, and they also undergo changes of their own until they reach their final form.
Selected solo exhibitions
“Ben Hiç Bizon Görmedim,” solo painting exhibition, Artsürem / Ankara 2019
“Rembrandt’s Whore,” solo painting exhibition, Selçuk University Faculty of Fine Arts Exhibition Hall / Konya 2014
Konya State Fine Arts Gallery, solo painting exhibition / Konya 2013
Amantes Gallery, “Selcuk Call,” solo painting exhibition, Turin / Italy 2012
Selected group exhibitions
Karaman Symposium, international group painting exhibition / Karaman 2019
“Art Ankara 5th Contemporary Art Fair,” Artsürem / Ankara 2019
“Ters Açı / Reverse Angle” / group exhibition - Artsürem / Ankara 2019
“95. Yıla Özel 95 Eser Cumhuriyet Sergisi,” Dokuma Modern Arts Gallery, Antalya 2018
“30A-3” group exhibition, Artsürem - Ankara 2018
“Nuri İyem Painting Award,” selected for exhibition, Evin Art Gallery, Istanbul 2018
16th Özel İzmir Türk Koleji National Painting Competition, First Prize, Izmir 2018
Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University Faculty of Fine Arts 15th Painting Competition, selected for exhibition, 2018
EMISSC, International EMI Social Sciences Congress, group exhibition, Nicosia, Cyprus, 2018
Mevlana, “42 Sanatçı 42 Eser” painting exhibition / Konya 2017
Novada Outlet, group painting exhibition, Konya 2016
Selçuk University Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting, “Yüksek Lisans Öğrencileri” painting exhibition / Konya 2014
3rd International “42 Sanatçı 42 Eser” Exhibition, Konya 2014
UKKSA National Painting-Sculpture Workshop Exhibition / Datça 2014
1st Homorod International Painting Competition, “First Prize” / Romania 2014
3rd “Vova” - MINIArt International Painting Competition, “Jury Honorable Mention” / Hungary 2013
“Green Mail Art” group exhibition / Istanbul 2013
Residenza Cavour Edisu Piemonte group exhibition, Turin / Italy 2012
Accademia Albertina delle Belle Arti “Era Smart” painting exhibition, Turin / Italy 2012
Küçükçekmece Municipality Painting Competition, selected for exhibition / Istanbul 2011
Selçuk University Faculty of Fine Arts group photography exhibition / Konya 2010
Painter İbrahim Rızayev group painting exhibition / Konya 2009
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