In her work, Güvenal ponders on the tension between the contemporary chaos and her personal serenity. While giving character to distant colors, she emphasizes a fierce power of resistance and the energy to start anew.
Güvenal (1962) works in Istanbul and New York.
Master of Fine Arts, Yeditepe University, Istanbul, Turkey,
High Honors with her thesis on the pioneering women of the Abstract Expressionist movement.
Art Workshops:
Art Students League of New York, New York, USA
International Center for Painting, Orvieto, Italy (with Vincent Desiderio and Bernardo Siciliano)
Mustafa Özel Studio, Istanbul, Turkey
Maryam Salahi Studio, Istanbul, Turkey
Neriman Polat Studio, Istanbul Turkey
New York Academy of Arts Workshops, New York, USA
Master of Business Administration, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey
BS in Industrial Engineering, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey
Is it possible to reconcile the search for serenity with the effort to have an effective life in society? Is the compulsion for tension a reflection of the power to resist? Despite things that I want to change outside of myself, I am limited by my individuality. My capacity is only enough for the surface of a painting. Fortunately, this limited power has the potential to reach an unlimited freedom. Painting is an expanse of freedom; I would not want to narrow this space with rules and habits. I carefully avoid repeating myself; I prefer to add the dynamism of learning to my painting process by striking with a different physical energy, an experimental color mixture, researching a different material. My painting session is not the realization of a pre-detailed plan but an improvisation, it is unplanned yet not haphazard. I proceed being in dialogue with the evolvement in the formal elements of the painting. In my case, this dialogue means staring at the surface, talking to myself, dancing, pacing, cleaning my brushes.
