Melike Kara Bio Presseerklärung

#005: Melike Kara

changing light

In her practice, Kara continuously engages with her Kurdish heritage and ancestral memory. Given that the Kurdish people do not own land and rarely have access to institutional resources, it is up to families and communities to pass on knowledge and memories from generation to generation. Kara uses her art in favor of such an oral history. Like all titles chosen by Kara, changing light is a poetic reflection.

For nw9, Kara created a site-specific installation covering all windows of the exhibition space with enlarged archival photographs of the Kurdish mountains. The translucent black-and-white images of diasporic land enter into a dialogue with the urban environment of Barbarossaplatz. At the same time, the work takes on a mediating role between the gallery space and the rush of city life unfolding right in front of it. Blurry at close inspection and sharp from a distance, they take on an Impressionist quality, revealing an image of memory in the blink of an eye.

The sensation of dripping paint continues in Kara’s paintings. Silver coating turns rough canvas into matte mirrors without reflections. Kara fills each one with abstract, almost calligraphical brushstrokes of soft rose and yellow that remotely resemble textures on folkloric fabric.

Melike Kara (*1985, Bensberg) lives and works in Cologne. She is particularly committed to painting and the unique surfaces that result from the experimental use of different media and materials.

In recent years, her work has been shown in exhibitions at galleries and public institutions, including Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen; Kunsthalle Zürich; Parcours Art Basel 2023; Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Museum De Fundatie, Zwolle; Philara Foundation, Düsseldorf; Frac des pays de la Loire, Nantes; Mead Gallery | Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry; Neue Galerie Gladbeck; Ludwig Forum Aachen; Kölnischer Kunstverein; Wiels Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels; Kunstverein Göttingen; Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam; Yuz Museum, Shanghai; and Dortmunder Kunstverein. She was a participant in the 58th Carnegie International in Pittsburgh in 2022.