Hüseyin Yıldırım - Turkish Painting Association

Who is Hüseyin Yıldırım? (1972-Mersin)

Born in Anamur, Mersin in 1972.
Graduated from Anadolu University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Painting in 1996.
The artist, who has three awards, has held eight solo exhibitions and his works have been featured in over twenty competitive exhibitions. His works have been exhibited in international and national fairs. His works are in museums and collections both in Turkey and abroad. He continues his work in his studio in Gaziantep.

Awards;
-1996 – Anıtkabir Association National Painting Competition on the Theme of Our Republic and Atatürk, Third Prize – ANKARA
-2009 – Gaziantep Teachers’ House Cultural Activities Painting Competition, Second Prize – GAZİANTEP
-2011 – Yunus Emre National Painting Competition, Honorable Mention Award – ESKİŞEHİR

Artistic Perspective;
“In his paintings, I can see traces of pure nature-loving as well as metaphysical thought and purifying Eastern philosophy. Artist Hüseyin Yıldırım reflects the traces of the dreamlike processes he intensely experiences in his paintings. He conveys his aesthetic excitement, enthusiasm, and sensations through the universal symbols he chooses, creating his own dream world. In his paintings titled “I Dream,” he presents anonymous images such as ‘woman, sea, lotus flower, butterfly, moon and sun, ancient structures’ to the viewer like a film scene, as if through the eyes of a masterful cinematographer. As a viewer, while watching one scene presented to you, you become involved in other scenes and begin to live your own dreams. According to Schopenhauer, Dante’s greatness stems from his profound understanding of dream reality. Because an artist is someone who can do in waking life what they do in a dream. While depicting one’s own dreams with flawless images and symbols is the fundamental measure of success for an artist, making the viewer a willing participant in these dreams is the ultimate achievement.”

In Yıldırım's paintings, the common space of dreams is the atmosphere of the sea and mountains, dimensionalized by tonal richness of cold and warm gray-blues, greens, and turquoises. The painting surface is often illuminated by the enchanting sunlight rising from the mountains and the depths of the sky. Sometimes, everything is gently bathed in the redness of a sunset. It is a journey of longing, starting from a bay in the Mediterranean and extending to the gentle slopes of the Taurus Mountains, a journey into the subconscious of the geography where childhood and early youth were spent. In his paintings, everything is reflected and transformed into water. The images on the sea surface do not accept one-dimensional perception; they are created with different perspectives and meet in different layers of space. Events that cannot be seen objectively meet the viewer's eye simultaneously in a new reality and a fantastic narrative. The main protagonist of the dreamlike narratives is the female figure, like a nymph in the sea, emerging from a luminous-mysterious light. Often with half of her body submerged in the water, in an innocent, even somewhat melancholic, iconic pose, her face indistinct, the gradually receding female figures are symbols of different identities. Deep within the subconscious, female figures, each coded as a prototype of different lives, create new stories on the surface of the water with their theatrical postures.

This text, penned by painter Kadir Şişkinoğlu, describes the intellectual dimension of my paintings.

This text clearly and understandably expresses the subject and theme I addressed while creating my paintings.

Solo Exhibitions;
1999 - Eskişehir State Fine Arts Gallery - Eskişehir
2011 - Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Onat Kutlar Exhibition Hall - Gaziantep
2012 - Sanko Art Gallery – Gaziantep
2013 - Ziraat Bank Mithatpaşa Art Gallery – Ankara
2014 - Sanko Art Gallery – Gaziantep
2017 - Ellenart Art Gallery – Istanbul
2020 - Grup Art Gallery – Ankara
2025 - ZA Gallery - Ankara

International Exhibitions and Workshops;
1996 - Habitat International Environmental Painting Competition Exhibition - London
2015 - Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts 30th Anniversary Spring Meetings
2015 - 7th International Orange Blossom Art Colony
2015 - 25th Artist Istanbul Art Fair
2016 - 1st International Thessoloniki Art Fair Thessaloniki - GREECE 2016 - 7th Tepebaşı Municipality National Art Workshop - ESKİŞEHİR
2016 - Kapari Hotel 2nd International Art Workshop - Alaçatı
2016 - XXIII. International Colony of Art Kicevo – MACEDONIA Workshop
2016 - 3rd Artoros Art Workshop - İbradı - Antalya
2016 - Alarmart Art Group "Petites Choses 20x20cm Exhibition" Galerie Art'et Miss Paris - FRANCE
2017 - 2nd Türkoğlu Municipality International Art Workshop
2017 - Efeler Municipality 2nd International Art Workshop – Aydın
2017 - Süleymanpaşa Municipality 4th Bisanthe International Plastic Arts Workshop
2018 - Türkoğlu Municipality 3rd International Art Workshop
2018 - 4th Contemporary Art Fair Artankara
2018 - 27th International Workshop Art-Suit Gallery - BODRUM 2020 - Osmaniye Korkut Ata University Faculty of Architecture, Design and Fine Arts International Online Masters Meeting Exhibition
2023 - 1st Mediterranean Biennial Antakya Painting Workshop 2023 - The Anatolian Artists Festival – Gallery Hours - New York - USA 2024 - Club Barbarossa Hotel International Art Workshop - ALAÇATI 2025 - Art Ankara Contemporary Art Fair - ANKARA 2025 - Art nova Contemporary Art Fair - ANKARA