Turhan Ka. - Turkish Painting Association - UK- Headquartered in London

Who is Turhan Ka? (1959 – İnegöl)

His real name is Turhan Karayağmurlar, he was born in İnegöl in 1959. He started working in the advertising sector in İzmir in 1985, and started painting in the advertising workshop he worked in 1990 with his own efforts and has continued without a break. He did not receive an art education, he learned everything he learned by studying, researching, trying, and doing. Since 2001, he has been signing his works as Turhan KA.

He works in series periodically. His working style is as follows, in his own words, what makes me curious, what interests me, what draws me, which can be anything, an idea, a material, a word, a line, a color, a person, a piece of news…
I go after it and produce with that idea until the end, coming to terms with it in every way possible.

Since he knows all kinds of materials well in the advertising workshop, he has been producing with very different materials since the very beginning. In 2017, he added sculptures and masks that he started to make entirely from waste materials by chance to his production process. He is interested in photography because he thinks it contributes to painting, and he has also been making videos, especially in recent years. He has a channel called Turhan KA, which includes his own works, exhibitions, news on TV in visual media, and poems.

He writes art articles consisting of his own experiences on the Mecmua İstanbul news and media site. He participated in mixed and group exhibitions and opened personal exhibitions. His works are in official and private collections and in the permanent collection of the TÜRVAK Cinema Theater Museum, İzmir Paper and Book Arts Museum.

He prepared paintings for the rooms of the İstanbul Sürmeli Hotel and Vakıfbank Ayvalık Social Facilities upon an offer he received in 2008.

A member of BRHD, he continues his paintings and other works in İzmir. Turhan KA, who uses all kinds of materials and does not like known established rules and boundaries, defines his own understanding of art as follows.

”My art is a place I do not know at all but I am stubbornly trying to find”

Art Perspective;

After I started painting in 1990, I developed my own philosophy, I have always tried to do things I don’t know from the very beginning and this is the basis of my understanding of art. That’s why I have done works with very different methods and materials, sticking to a single method was not for me. Because of this attitude, I have never been attached to a single style or material, whatever I wanted to do, I always searched for and found the form and material that suited my inner desire. I have added something to my process in every period, I have never had habits, every period has been a new birth and source for me. While doing something, I have made preparations for the future, this never-ending adventure, the process of creating and producing has always triggered each other…

I cannot stay in one form of expression for a long time, I don’t think this is very important, I am constantly looking for new possibilities, I am not looking for them, in fact I find them somehow. In other words, I am a bit inconsistent, I immediately take action and change my method without any plan when I work, even at the cost of contradicting myself, when I feel something. More precisely, these inconsistencies that I make, my contradictions with myself, are what make my art come into being.

There are many people who prefer consistency as a useful feature because it gives serenity and clarity to a work of art. However, to what extent is it right for an artist who has a wide range of creative possibilities to always choose one of these possibilities and leave the others aside?

A technique whose rules are well learned, certain subjects that are well mastered may take an artist somewhere. However, the place that is usually reached is the area of mastery rather than creativity. Every master can be a good producer, but this does not mean that he is a good creator.

Yes, these inconsistencies that keep my art alive and create me are what feed me. I do not care about being a painter or what is said about what I do, because I do this because I feel this way, not for someone else. An impulse, a feeling, a way of being, whatever is in life and touches my accumulated visual memory, is a starting point for me, once I catch it, I don't let go and go with it, but this is a temporary thing, I come to terms with it in every way and say goodbye. It can be a line, a stain, a color, a material, a style, etc. It can be anything, when it ends with me, it will go away, and some will continue to be with me.

These artistic intersections that somehow touch me keep my art very alive. What creates me or forms my art is not a certain material, method, technique, etc., all of these things I do are actually mine.

Solo Exhibitions;

-2007 Izmir Turkish American Association Exhibition Hall KA SERIES... October 23 - November 6, 2007 IZMIR

- 2008 I.B.B. Çetin Emeç Art Gallery İZMİR

FLEET MARKET PICTURES... 2 - 15 April 2008

-2010 Ege University 50. Year Mansion Art Gallery İZMİR

Dedicated to Cinema Workers

Voices by Alan : MARKO BUDURİS... 5 November - 8 December 2010

-2011 Vali Yazıcıoğlu Culture Center AYDIN

KA CA THINGS... 11 - 17 April 2011

-2011 TÜRVAK Cinema Theater Museum İSTANBUL

Dedicated to Cinema Workers

Voices by Alan : MARKO BUDURİS... 4 May - 4 June 2011