Elif Uras creates paintings and ceramic sculptures that explore the visual identity of women within the complex, ever-changing relationship between Western modernity and Eastern art and culture. Her sculptures are made onsite in Iznik, the historic centre of ceramics in Türkiye since the fifteenth century. Uras’ sculptures, with their anthropomorphic forms are, in her own words, “a way of subverting or secularizing this tradition” where the artist reverses an abstract language and lends new meanings to it.
Beyond their appearance, Uras’ works draw attention to female agency as observed in contemporary society through reproductive, domestic and wage labor. Representation, form and ornamentation function as symbolic languages and visual codes with references as diverse as earth goddess figures, Islamic art, and the Art Nouveau. She brings together the fine arts brush and the paint gun, exploring the cultural tension between the mechanical everyday and the artistic gesture.
Uras’ works has been exhibited at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Kirkhoff; Smith-Stewart, 9th Shanghai Biennale; P.S.1 MoMa; Andrew Kreps Gallery and Greene Naftali Gallery. Her works are included in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ringier Collection and Maramotti Collection, Reggio Emilia amongst others.
Our presentation focuses on a selection of new ceramic plates and sculptures along with a functioning ceramic fountain and a large-scale tile installation displaying Uras’ critical and humorous iconography.
