Hüseyin Rüstemoğlu

Who is Hüseyin Rüstemoğlu? (1981-Bursa)

He graduated from the Painting Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts at Sakarya University in 2006. He completed his MA in the Painting Department of the Institute of Social Sciences at Sakarya University in 2012. He has participated in more than 100 exhibitions, fairs and biennials, 10 of which were personal, both domestically and abroad, and he currently continues his work in his studio in Istanbul. Some of the artist’s works are in various private collections, including Luciano Benetton Foundation.

Art Perspective;
Nature Series;
This is actually a journey of discovery guided by nature. A childhood spent in the forests,
a youth story that is separated from the embrace of nature and grows up in the city. The artist reflects the unity of “humanity and nature” from the mechanized world of humankind and the nature from which we are necessarily separated in his paintings. Bursa-born mixmedia artist Hüseyin Rüstemoğlu wanted to bring such a project to life as a result of his studies and explorations into nature. In his latest project, which he named “A Pleasant Light in the Air”, Rüstemoğlu focuses on the forests he grew up surrounded by since his childhood as his source of inspiration. With this project, the artist, who brings the human body and nudity together with nature, questions both nature and the place/role of humanity on nature. The artist also rediscovers nature in the essence of bodies.
“Maybe it is because of my connection with my childhood, this work I did triggered my love of adventure with great pleasure,” says Rüstemoğlu. In fact, it presents us with our return to nature, the adventure of nature within the human body. With the compositions he created, he used natural life against the human form and the human body as a contrast to natural life.
This is a journey of discovery in the lap of nature, the story of those who miss nature and believe that it will flourish again with it.

Hüseyin Rüstemoğlu, who tells the story of loneliness and social disaffiliation with human bodies taken in their natural state, creates a new aesthetic deeply connected to the roots of painting in his works built on drawing. The artist focuses on witnessing and exposing marginalized lives in today’s world where social changes are rapidly taking place. The figures in his compositions can neither exert any power on the world around them nor can they escape from it. Although they seem distant in terms of form, the subjects and objects in the selected images carry a psychological intensity.

No spatial definition was made while creating the work, in fact, emptiness constitutes the space of the painting. While the nudity of the human figures is taken in the natural state of man, far from eroticism, it also turns into a timeless image devoid of social status and class with the absence of clothing. Since the proportions of human figures are so small that they disappear within the plant and animal figures, they open up to a surreal, fairy-tale world. The artist also invites the viewer to question hope with the white areas surrounding the figures.

The Emptiness I Series;

In his works that he identifies with the theme of “Emptiness”, he sets out from his own body. He describes loneliness and social disaffiliation with the human body that he treats in its natural state. In his works constructed on the basis of photography, he uses materials such as paper, paint, writing and digital printing. With his multidisciplinary approach, he creates a new aesthetic that is deeply connected to the roots of photography.

In today’s world where social changes are rapidly taking place, the artist focuses on witnessing and exposing marginalized lives. The figures in his composition cannot exert any power over the world around them, nor can they escape from it. Although they seem distant in a formal sense, the subjects and objects in the selected images carry a psychological intensity.