Melis Önalan (1989, Istanbul, Turkey) makes paintings, drawings, mixed media and conceptual artworks. By examining the ambiguity and origination via retakes and variations, Melis tries to increase the dynamic between the audience and the artwork by objectifying emotions and investigating the duality that develops through different interpretations.

Her paintings question the coerciveness that is derived from the more profound meaning and the superficial aesthetic appearance of an image. Her works doesn’t reference a recognizable form. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted. Melis tries to develop forms that do not follow logical criteria, but are based only on subjective associations and formal parallels, which incite the viewer to make new personal associations.

Her works never show a complete structure. By emphasizing aesthetics, she creates intense personal moments masterfully created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance and refusal, luring the viewer round and round in circles. Multilayered images arise in which the fragility and instability of our seemingly certain reality is questioned.

Her works sometimes radiate a cold and latent violence. At times, a disconcerting beauty emerges. The inherent visual seductiveness further complicates the reception of the manifold layers of meaning. By questioning the concept of “movement”, she makes even everyday objects undergo transubstantiation.

Her works isolate the movements of places and/or objects. By doing so, new sequences are created which reveal an inseparable relationship between motion and color.

By taking daily life as subject matter while commenting on the everyday aesthetic values, Melis seduces the viewer into a world of ongoing equilibrium and the interval that articulates the stream of daily events.