Mine Zereyalp

Who is Mine Zereyalp? (1982 – Adana)

Mine Zereyalp is a painter and engraving artist born in Adana in 1982. Her encounter with art began in 2010 when she won the Muğla Faculty of Fine Arts and graduated in 2014 after four years of education. She continued her artistic journey in 2015 as a gallery coordinator at the Bodrum Yalıkavak branch of the Istanbul Mine Art Gallery, experiencing the relationship between a gallery owner and an art lover. In 2016, she established her own workshop and began producing her works, and won the achievement award in the Original Print Branch at the 74th State Painting and Sculpture Competition. In 2019, she established the first engraving printing workshop in Bodrum, intensified her work in intaglio and high printing techniques, and contributes to the art of engraving as a member of the Istanbul Exlibris Association. At the same time, she shares different drawing, pattern and painting techniques in her workshop and prepares students for the talent exams of the Faculty of Fine Arts.

Art Perspective;
Zereyalp’s art includes social, ideological and cultural questions beyond an aesthetic production. In the artist’s works, he treats power not only as a physical phenomenon but also as an ideological and psychological tool. The rhinoceros figure stands out as a metaphorical representation of these power dynamics; it tells how autocracies and hegemonic systems are constructed and how the individual undergoes a transformation in this process. The first step of totalitarian regimes is to direct the perception of society and impose a new order on it; at this point, the rhinoceros becomes the messenger of transformation and the individual unknowingly becomes a part of the system.
In his art, Zereyalp investigates the blurring of the boundaries between the powerful and the powerless and how power is shaped. The rhinoceros sometimes appears as a threatening symbol, sometimes as a sign of resistance, and sometimes as a messenger of an inevitable transformation. He tries to visualize how power dynamics are reproduced through colors, spaces and deformation. The artist’s aim is to encourage the viewer to think, question and to break existing stereotypes. Art, in Zereyalp’s eyes, is not only a form of expression, but also a reflection of a quest that constantly questions the structure of power and the individual’s relationship with this structure.