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Asli Ozok, a Turkish-born, London-based artist, addresses the intricacies of the modern world, intertwining its darkness and beauty. blending art history and societal development, Ozok navigates through complex themes, including war, consumerism, and gender perceptions. Capturing the complexities of the shared state of humanity. in her early Barcode series explores the modern world's debilitating obsession with acquisition, disposal, and consumption; a theme found throughout her practice particularly in Fish Flocks and Hagia Sofia. Hagia Sofia developed when Ozok traveled to Spain and New York and was struck by how commercial brands had become our modern icons. Developing on those themes, Ozok later produced the Iconos series which ruminates on the prominence of the Virgin mary and how the icon of womanhood has changed in contemporary life.
Democracy also uses the symbol of the female form as a reaction to the horrors of violence and war, vulnerable naked flesh stumbling across the canvas covered by the steel of war tanks. In her following series, Time, she dissects the concept of time and our ceaseless obsession to control it. Picking up the themes from her earlier series, the Garden of Armenia works deal with the complex roles of womanhood and the profound impact of the modern world on our spiritual energies. Özok's integration of Twitter logos, meticulously sewn onto the canvas using Swarovski beads, symbolizes our interconnectedness within a digital realm, where transient modes of interaction prevail.
In her most recent foray, Özok delves into the realm of surrealism and presents her inaugural series of sculptures. Özok explores the uncanny and paranormal state that permeated global consciousness during the pandemic. Encompassing both painting and bronze sculpture, the series brings to life ethereal creatures made from myth and dreams. These works tap into the continued use of symbolism in Özok practice; the sculpted creatures are the amalgamation of human body parts and cannot be classified or divided by gender but instead speak to spiritual unification. The same ethos is expressed in her Monochrome painting series, which, as the name suggests, are portraits executed in black and white removing skin pigmentation. Özok also began this series during the global, social and political hardships we faced during the pandemic. The new state of consciousness and restraint affected every person regardless of race, gender, wealth or power.
Asli Özok lives and works in London. She pursued her painting studies in Turkey and Spain, and her academic journey led her to become a professor of art and painting at the Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul and continued to teach at the University of Seville during her Ph.D. research. Özok's pieces can be found in the National Maritime Museum, Royal Museums Greenwich in London, UK, The Morera & Vallejo Foundation in Seville, Spain along with many other museums, institutions, and private collections and foundations worldwide. Throughout her career, Özok has held solo exhibitions in renowned galleries across the globe, including, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Portugal, Japan, the UK and the US among others. She has also participated in prestigious biennials, including the 15th International Istanbul Biennial in 2017, the London Biennale Manila in 2016 and the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy in 2011.
