The animal that slumbers inside us has numerous irrational fears. The connection formed by the expressionist with this animal, goads it to move along, chock-full-of primal fears and dangerous vibrations. The act of painting has transformed into an instinctive necessity to free the subject from emotional chaos and something akin to fear. For Erkut Terliksiz, painting is an experience which drags him in with indefinable, uncontrollable impulses and, as he gives in to these drives, gets closer to insanity without going insane.
Terliksiz, invites the art-lovers to his subjective world in his second solo exhibit "Till We Meet Again" on view between November 11 - December 11, 2010 at x-ist. The monsters appearing in his dreams, figures between reality and fiction are (at times) sorrowful, ridiculous, bored, excited, puzzled and furious. All these emotions re-born in his works reach towards the viewer to make that essential connection.
Terliksiz points out to us what we left behind as we ponder on what will come tomorrow. Even though each painting seems to stem from a woman-man love relationship, they also document a spiritual renewal. If profound relationships are what challenges us to face "the" truth, what makes them so strong is their provocative character that pushes us to go beyond what we are and free us of the limits we establish for ourselves. Isn’t it the feelings which draw the expressionist to the canvas that cause him to reach beyond the boundaries? Maybe, love is the result of an unconscious urge to contact all elements of our self.
The artist has a wishful thought; instead of turning into familiar strangers, let us keep the memory of those feelings alive. Therefore, instead of "Goodbye", lets say "Till We Meet Again".
Erkut Terliksiz Adana, 1978
Terliksiz graduated from the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts Faculty, Department of Illustration in 2002. The artist, who took place in several group exhibitions in Australia, England, Spain and Germany, exhibited his works in x-ist for the first time in the group show Intersection I (2005). Later, his first solo show Debut (2007) was exhibited in x-ist. Among the international art fairs Terliksiz participated in are artFair06 Cologne, Contemporary Istanbul 06, 07 and 09, CIGE 2008- China International Gallery Exposition (Pekin, China), Start-2009 (14th European Contemporary Art Fair, Strasbourg, France) and the group show "Thanks for Sharing" in 2010 (Leipzig, Germany).